List of English words of French origin

The pervasiveness of words of French origin that have been borrowed into English is comparable to that of borrowings from Latin. Estimates vary up, but 35%, 40%, or up to 45% of all English words may have a French origin. This suggests that up to 80,000 words should appear in this list. The list, however, only includes words directly borrowed from French, so it includes both joy and joyous but does not include derivatives with English suffixes such as joyful, joyfulness, partisanship, and parenthood.
Furthermore, the list excludes compound words in which only one of the elements is from French, e.g. ice cream, sunray, jellyfish, killjoy, lifeguard, and passageway, and English-made combinations of words of French origin, e.g. grapefruit (grape + fruit), layperson (lay + person), magpie, marketplace, petticoat, and straitjacket. Also excluded are words that come from French but were introduced into English via another language, e.g. commodore, domineer, filibuster, ketone, loggia, lotto, mariachi, monsignor, oboe, paella, panzer, picayune, ranch, vendue, and veneer.
English words of French origin should be distinguished from French words and expressions in English.
Although French is mostly derived from Latin, important other word sources are Gaulish and some Germanic languages, especially Old Frankish. Since English is of Germanic origin, words that have entered English from French borrowings of Germanic words might not look especially French.
Latin accounts for about 60% of English vocabulary either directly or via a Romance language. As both English and French have taken many words from Latin, determining whether a given Latin word came into English via French or not is often difficult.
Most of the French vocabulary now appearing in English was imported over the centuries following the Norman Conquest of 1066, when England came under the administration of Norman-speaking peoples. William the Conqueror invaded the British Isles, distributing lands and property to Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French soldiers. As a result, Old French became the language of culture and the administration, evolving into Anglo-Norman French.
The use of French and Norman in the kingdom was "extremely important" from William the Conqueror's coronation in 1066 until 1260.
Although most English people kept speaking Old English, this started to change due to increasing numbers of words borrowed from French (and Latin), the languages of the ruling elite. Often this resulted in pairs of words, often pertaining to different language registers: commence/start, commerce/trade, continue/carry on, depart/leave, disengage/withdraw, encounter/meet, maintain/uphold, marry/wed, menace/threat, purchase/buy, revenue/income, vend/sell, chant/sing. Walter Scott popularized the idea of the Anglo-Norman nobility eating the meats of the animals that Anglo-Saxon peasants had raised: beef/cow, mutton/sheep, veal/calf, pork/pig. In each case the word of French origin was only used in the kitchen. However, this occurred centuries after the Norman conquest and might owe more to the enduring prestige of French cuisine than to a hypothetical specialization of tasks.
Words of French origin often refer to more abstract or generalized notions than their Old English equivalents (e.g. liberty/freedom, justice/fairness, source/spring, vision/sight), and are therefore of less frequent use in everyday language. However, this is not true for all English words of French origin. Consider, for example, some of the most common words in English: able, car, chair, city, country, different, fact, fine, fruit, group, journey, juice, just, large, move, part, people, person, place, point, problem, public, push, real, remain, stay, table, travel, use, very, and wait.
After Henry Plantagenet ascended the throne of England, other French dialects gained influence at the expense of Anglo-Norman French, notably the Angevin dialect from whence the House of Plantagenet came, and possibly Poitevin, the tongue of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
The motto of the British monarchy was proclaimed in French as "Dieu et mon droit". The aristocracy ruled England in French, which was considered "the language of an elite" until 1260.
After 1260, English merchants and jurists began to speak French.
Between 1260 and 1400, everyday and popular language adopted words borrowed from French.
With the English claim to the throne of France, the influence of the language in use at the French royal court in Paris increased.
French cultural influence remained strong in the following centuries, and from the Renaissance onward, most borrowings were from Parisian French, which became the de facto standard language of France.
Le Devoir's Jean-François Nadeau wrote, "Many English words were borrowed from Old French, but also from Norman". Linguist Bernard Cerquiglini, author of "La langue anglaise n'existe pas". C'est du français mal prononcé (lit. '"The English language does not exist". It's badly pronounced French'), published by Gallimard, said, "All of the sustained vocabulary of English or almost, belongs to the French language". Cerquiglini added: "International English comes from French." Nadeau noted, "More than a third of English vocabulary is indeed of French origin." Modern-day older Norman-speaking people in Normandy recognise English words as Norman.
Norman rule of England had a lasting impact on British society. Words from Anglo-Norman or Old French include terms related to chivalry (homage, liege, peasant, seigniorage, suzerain, vassal, villain) and other institutions (bailiff, chancellor, council, government, mayor, minister, parliament), the organisation of religion (abbey, clergy, cloister, diocese, friar, mass, parish, prayer, preach, priest, sacristy, vestment, vestry, vicar), the nobility (baron, count, dame, duke, marquis, prince, sir), and the art of war (armour, baldric, dungeon, hauberk, mail, portcullis, rampart, surcoat). Many of these words related to the feudal system or medieval warfare have a Germanic origin (mainly through Old Frankish) (see also French words of Germanic origin).
The Norman origin of the British monarchy is visible in expressions like Prince Regent, heir apparent, Princess Royal in which the adjective goes after the noun, as in French.
All British noble vocabulary such as "baron, count, monarch, monarchy, noble, prince, regent, royal, sire, sovereign, throne, vassal" is borrowed from French.
The vocabulary of heraldry has been heavily influenced by French (blazon, or, argent, sable, gules, passant), for more details see tinctures, attitudes, and charges of heraldry.
Sometimes used in heraldry, some mythological beasts (cockatrice, dragon, griffin, hippogriff, phoenix, wyvern) and exotic animals (lion, leopard, antelope, gazelle, giraffe, camel, zebu, elephant, baboon, macaque, mouflon, dolphin, ocelot, ostrich, chameleon) draw their name from French. This is also true for some animals native to Europe (via Anglo-Norman: buzzard, coney, eagle, egret, falcon, ferret, heron, leveret, lizard, marten, rabbit, salmon, squirrel, viper).
The vocabulary of warfare and the military includes many words and expressions of French origin (accoutrements, aide-de-camp, army, artillery, battalion, bivouac, brigade, camouflage, carabineer, cavalry, cordon sanitaire, corps, corvette, dragoon, espionage, esprit de corps, état major, fusilier, grenadier, guard, hors-de-combat, infantry, latrine, legionnaire, logistics, matériel, marine, morale, musketeer, officer, pistol, platoon, reconnaissance/reconnoitre, regiment, rendezvous, siege, soldier, sortie, squad, squadron, surrender, surveillance, terrain, troop, volley). This includes military ranks: admiral, captain, colonel, corporal, general, lieutenant, sergeant. Many fencing terms are also from French.
The political/economic lexicon includes many words of French origin such as money, treasury, exchequer, commerce, finance, tax, liberalism, capitalism, materialism, nationalism, plebiscite, coup d'état, regime, sovereignty, state, administration, federal, bureaucracy, constitution, jurisdiction, district.
The judicial lexicon has been heavily influenced by French (justice, judge, jury, attorney, court, case).
attaché, chargé d'affaires, envoy, embassy, chancery, diplomacy, démarche, communiqué, aide-mémoire, détente, entente, rapprochement, accord, treaty, alliance, passport, protocol.
art, music, dance, theatre, author, stage, paint, canvas, perform, harmony, melody, rhythm, trumpet, note, director, gallery, portrait, brush, pallet, montage, surrealism, impressionism, fauvism, cubism, symbolism, art nouveau, gouache, aquarelle, collage, render, frieze, grisaille.
aisle, arcade, arch, vault, voussoir, belfry, arc-boutant, buttress, bay, lintel, estrade, facade, balustrade, terrace, lunette, niche, pavilion, pilaster, porte cochère.
France played a pioneering role in the fields of aviation (nacelle, empennage, fuselage, fenestron, aileron, altimeter, canard, decalage, monocoque, turbine) and automobile engineering or design (chassis, piston, arbor, grille, tonneau, berline, sedan, limousine, cabriolet, coupé, convertible).
baba au rhum, beef, beef bourguignon, boudin, caramel, casserole, cassoulet, chowder, clafoutis, confit, consommé, cream, croissant, custard, filet mignon, fillet, foie gras, flognarde, fondant, fondue, gateau, gratin, madeleine, marmalade, mayonnaise, meringue, mille-feuille, mustard, mutton, navarin, pâté, pastry, petit four, pork, porridge, potage, pudding, puree, ragout, ratatouille, roux, salad, sauce, sausage, soufflé, soup, stew, terrine, trifle, veal, venison, vol-au-vent.
Vegetables and fruits: (courgette, aubergine, cabbage, carrot, cherry, chestnut, cucumber, nutmeg, quince, spinach, lemon, orange, apricot).
Other borrowings include the names of colours (ecru, mauve, beige, carmine, maroon, blue, orange, violet, vermilion, turquoise, lilac, perse, russet, scarlet, cerise), and months of the year (January, March, May, July, November, December).
Some of the French words that made their way into the English language were coined by French speaking inventors, pioneers or scientists: cinema, television, helicopter, parachute, harmonium, bathyscaphe, lactose, lecithin, bacteriophage, chlorophyll, mastodon, pterodactyl, oxide, oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, photography, stethoscope, thermometer, stratosphere, troposphere.
Some English words come from the French surnames of famous people, especially in the fields of science (ampere, appertisation, baud, becquerel, braille, coulomb, curie, daguerreotype, pascal, pasteurise, vernier), botany and mineralogy (begonia, bougainvillea, clementine, magnolia, dolomite, nicotine), fashion and other cultural aspects (lavalier, leotard, recamier, mansard, chauvinism, praline, saxophone, silhouette, guillotine). Note also kir and strass, though these are not originally French words.
The names of some cities in non-francophone areas came into English with French spelling (Louisville, Constance, Ypres, Bruges, Louvain, Turin, Milan, Plaisance, Florence, Rome, Naples, Syracuse, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Seville, Constantinople).
In North America, the names of some of the Native American peoples and First Nations who the French were in contact with first are from French (Sioux, Saulteaux, Iroquois, Nez Perce, Huron, Cheyenne, Algonquin). Many place names also came into English via French, such as Canada, Arkansas, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Vermont, Baton Rouge, Boise, Chicago, Des Moines, Detroit.
Some Old French words have been reborrowed during the Middle French or Modern French periods, generally with a more restrictive or specialised meaning. Consider for instance these doublets : alley/allée, chair/chaise, cream/crème, chief/chef, luminary/luminaire, liquor/liqueur, castle/château, hostel/hotel, mask/masque, necessary/nécessaire, petty/petit, ticket/etiquette, troop/troupe, vanguard/avant-garde. Note that the word in French has retained the general meaning: e.g. château in French means "castle" and chef means "chief". In fact, loanwords from French generally have a more restricted or specialised meaning than in the original language, e.g. legume (in Fr. légume means "vegetable"), gateau (in Fr. gâteau means "cake"). Note that this is also generally the case with French words borrowed from English (in Fr. cake refers to the English-style fruitcake).
In some cases, English has been more conservative than French with Old French words, at least in the spelling: e.g. apostle (O.Fr. apostle / M.Fr. apôtre), castle (O.Fr. castel or chastel / M.Fr. château), forest (O.Fr. forest / M.Fr. forêt), vessel (O.Fr. vaissel / M.Fr. vaisseau). Other Old French words have even disappeared from Modern French, e.g. dandelion.
On the other hand, a move to restore classical word roots (Latin or Ancient Greek), occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries; many words from Old French had their spelling re-Latinized. While this did not generally affect their pronunciation (e.g. debt, doubt, indict, mayor), in some cases it did (e.g. abnormal, adventure, benefit). In words of Greek origin, f was replaced by the older ph digraph. Hence fantosme became phantom, fesan became pheasant. This also occurred in French, though less systematically: Old French farmacie became pharmacie ("pharmacy"), fenix became phénix ("phoenix"), but fantosme became fantôme ("phantom, ghost") and fesan became faisan ("pheasant").
Beside re-Latinization that blurred the French origin of some words (e.g. foliage, peradventure), other spelling changes have included alterations due to folk etymology e.g. andiron, belfry, crayfish, cutlet, female, furbelow, gillyflower, gingerbread, penthouse, pickaxe, pulley.
The spelling of some words was changed to keep the pronunciation as close to the original as possible (e.g. leaven). In other cases, the French spelling was kept, leading to a totally different pronunciation than in French (e.g. leopard, levee). More recent borrowings from French have kept their original spelling and a more or less close approximation their original pronunciation: (e.g. ambiance, aplomb, arbitrage, armoire, atelier, barrage, bizarre, bonhomie, bourgeoisie, brochure, bureau, café, camaraderie, catalogue, chandelier, chauffeur, coiffure, collage, cortège, crèche, critique, debris, décor, dénouement, depot, detour, dossier, élite, entourage, ennui, entrepreneur, espionage, expertise, exposé, fatigue, financier, garage, genre, glacier, impasse, intrigue, liaison, lingerie, macabre, machine, massage, matinée, menagerie, millionaire, mirage, montage, panache, parti pris, penchant, personnel, plaque, programme, promenade, raconteur, rapport, rapporteur, repertoire, reservoir, ricochet, routine, sabotage, sachet, souvenir, tableau, terrain, tranche). However, this may change with time, e.g. the initial h in hotel is not silent anymore, consider also the variant pronunciations of herb and garage. Meanwhile, expressions such as femme fatale, faux pas, haute couture, bête noire and enfant terrible are still recognisably French.
Borrowing is not a one-way process (See Reborrowing). Some words of French origin ultimately come from Old English (Anglo-Saxon words): e.g. bateau, chiffon, gourmet, or Middle English: e.g. lingot. Conversely, some English words of French origin have made their way "back" into Modern French: budget, challenge, design, discount, establishment, express, fuel, gay, gin, humour, interview, jury, magazine, management, mess, pedigree, pellet, performance, rave, record, reporter, spleen, sport, squat, standard, suspense, tennis, ticket, toast, toboggan, tunnel, vintage.