Words from Old Northern French
11 words in Curio passed through Old Northern French on their way into English.
About Old Northern French
One of the langues d'oïl of northern France; an earlier stage of Norman · an earlier stage of a language still spoken today
Where
Normandy, northern France → England, Southern Italy, Sicily and the Levant
When
Dates unknown
Speakers
No reliable count
No census of its speakers exists.
Family path
- Old Northern French
- Middle EnglishOld EnglishAnglo-Norman
- English
Where it came from
Old Northern French was one of many varieties of the langues d'oïl native to northern France, rooted in the region now called Normandy. From there it travelled to England, Southern Italy, Sicily and the Levant, where it became an important language of the Principality of Antioch under Crusader rule. It is the ancestor of modern Norman, including insular dialects such as Jèrriais, and of Anglo-Norman.
Source: Wikipedia
The words, A to Z
- blanket
This cozy word for a bed-cover started life describing the color of a cloth, not its warmth.
- camel
A word that crossed deserts and languages long before it crossed into English.
- chime
The bell-like word for a ringing sound may itself have been born from a mix-up over what a bell was called.
- coffin
The box that holds the dead started out holding loaves of bread.
- cottage
A small, humble home may carry a word that traveled from Norse huts all the way to Finnish tents.
- garter
A word for a leg-band that once simply meant the leg itself.
- pouch
A little bag with a big family tree, stretching back through French and Frankish soil to a Germanic root for a sack.
- scarf
The thing you wrap around your neck has a history as tangled as its own knot.
- wage
Your paycheck's ancestor was really just a promise someone had to keep.
- wardrobe
A piece of furniture whose name literally means keeping your clothes under guard.
- warrant
Before it meant legal permission, this word meant someone standing guard over you.