french | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

10000 entries found.

c. 1400, from Anglo-French thaynage (c. 1300), from English thane + Old French suffix -age (see -age).

type of opera glass with a handle, 1803 (from 1776 as a French word in English), from French lorgnette, from lorgner "to squint," also "to leer at, ogle" (16c.), from lorgne "squinting, cross-eyed; silly, foolish" (Old French), a word of uncertain origin, perhaps from Germanic. With diminutive suffix -ette. Compare also French lorgnon "eyeglass, eyeglasses."

chassepot (n.)

bolt-action breechloading rifle introduced into the French army 1866-68 and used by French forces in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870, named for French inventor Antonine-Alphonse Chassepot (1833-1905).

gare (n.)

French for "train station," 1840 in French, from earlier sense "river port, pier" (17c.), verbal noun from garer "to (supply with) shelter," in Middle French also "to dock ships" (see garage (n.)).

warranty (n.)

mid-14c., legal term for various types of clauses in real estate transactions, from Anglo-French and Old North French warantie "protection, defense, safeguard" (Old French garantie), from warant (see warrant (n.)).

lunge (n.)

1735, "a thrust with a sword," originally a fencing term, shortened from allonge, from French allonger "to extend, thrust," from Old French alongier "to lengthen, make long," from à "to" + Old French long, from Latin longus "long" (see long (adj.)).

revetment (n.)

"a breastwork, retaining wall," 1779, from French revêtement, Old French revestiment, from revestir (Modern French revêtir), from Late Latin revestire "to clothe again," from re- "again, back" (see re-) + Latin vestire "to clothe" (from PIE root *eu- "to dress").

brush (n.2)

"shrubbery, small trees and shrubs of a wood; branches of trees lopped off," mid-14c., from Anglo-French bruce "brushwood," Old North French broche, Old French broce "bush, thicket, undergrowth" (12c., Modern French brosse), from Gallo-Roman *brocia, perhaps from *brucus "heather," or possibly from the same source as brush (n.1).

intermeddle (v.)

late 14c., entremedlen, "to mix together, blend," from Anglo-French entremedler, Old French entremesler; from inter- + Anglo-French medler (see meddle (v.)). From early 15c. as "involve oneself in what is not one's business."

reconnoiter (v.)

also reconnoitre, 1707, "make a survey," specifically "to examine a tract or region for military or engineering purposes," from older French reconnoitre (Modern French reconnaître), from Old French reconoistre "to identify" (see recognize). Related: Reconnoitering.

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