- sans-culotte
- "lower-class republican of the French Revolution," 1790, from Fr., lit. "without breeches;" see sans + cullotes. Usually explained as referring to the class whose distinctive costume was pantalons (long trousers) as opposed to the upper classes, which wore culottes (knee-breeches), but this is not certain.
- sans-serif
- 1830, from Fr. sans "without" (see sans) + English serif, from earlier ceref, perhaps from Du. schreef "a line, a stroke," from schrijven "to write," from L. scribere. Short form sans recorded from 1927.
- Bayard
- generic or mock-heroic name for a horse, late 14c., from O.Fr. Baiard, name of the bay-colored magic steed given by Charlemagne to Renaud in the legends, from O.Fr. baiart "bay-colored" (see bay (4)). The name also was used attributively of gentlemen of courage and integrity, in this sense from Pierre du Terrail, seigneur de Bayard (1473-1524), Fr. knight celebrated as Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche; however the meaning deteriorated in later times till it came to denote blind recklessness and even actual blindness. The surname is perhaps in reference to hair color.
- omelet
- 1610s, from Fr. omelette (16c.), metathesis of alemette (14c.), from alemelle "blade of a knife or sword," probably a misdivision of la lemelle (mistaken as l'alemelle), from L. lamella "thin, small plate," dim. of lamina "plate, layer." The food so called from its flat shape. The proverb "you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs" (1859) translates Fr. On ne saurait faire une omelette sans casser des oeufs.
- ceriph
- "lines at the top or bottom of a letter;" see sans-serif.
- go
- O.E. gan "to go," from W.Gmc. *gai-/*gæ- (cf. O.Fris. gan, M.Du. gaen, Ger. gehen), from PIE *ghei-, perhaps connected to Skt. jihite "goes away," Gk. kikhano "I reach, meet with," but there is not general agreement on cognates. The O.E. past tense was eode, of uncertain origin but evidently once a different word (perhaps connected to Goth. iddja); it was replaced 1400s by went, formerly past tense of wenden "to direct one's way" (see wend). In northern England and Scotland, however, eode tended to be replaced by gaed, a construction based on go. In modern English, only be and go take their past tenses from entirely different verbs. The word in its various forms and combinations takes up 45 columns of close print in the OED. The noun sense of "a try or turn at something" is from 1825; meaning "something that goes, a success" is from 1876. Verbal meaning "say" emerged 1960s in teen slang. Going to "be about to" is from late 15c. Go for broke is from 1951, Amer.Eng. colloquial; go down on "perform oral sex on" is from 1916. That goes without saying (1878) translates Fr. cela va sans dire. Phrase on the go "in constant motion" is from 1843; go-between is 1590s; go-getter is 1910, Amer.Eng., but goer, with essentially the same meaning, is late 14c.
- Penzance
- place in Cornwall, Pensans (late 13c.), lit. "Holy Headland," from Cornish penn "head" + sans "holy."
- serif
- 1841, see sans-serif.
- culottes
- "a divided skirt," 1911, from Fr. culotte "breeches" (16c.), a dim. of cul "bottom, backside, anus," from L. culus "bottom, fundament." Earlier, in the singular cullote, it was used to mean "knee-breeches" (1842). Por le cul bieu "By God's arse" was an Old French oath.
- sans
- early 14c., from Fr. sans, O.Fr. sen, sens (with adverbial genitive), cognate with Prov. senes, O.Catalan senes, O.Sp. sen (Sp. sin), O.It. sen, from V.L. *sene, from L. sine "without," from si ne "if not."