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The present work proposes a synthetic insight into the field of French etymology, involving
facts related to language history, semantic and morphologic evolution of the analyzed terms
and evidently the historical and social evolution of France and of the French people. In fact,
far from claiming an exhaustive approach of the topic, the paper will attempt at emphasizing
precisely the intrinsic connection between linguistic evolution and factual history, the latter as
a generative factor of the former.
1.Brief theoretic introduction into the concept of etymology
I shall start with the very etymology of the term, originating from the Latinized form
etymologia of the Greek word ἐτυμολογία, composed of ἔτυμος, etymos (true,
veritable) and λόγος, logos (word, science). Thus the literal-etymological
meaning of the term should be that of ˝science of the truth˝. In their work
Histoire de la langue française, Jacqueline Picoche and Christiane Marcello-
Nizia simply define it as ˝prehistory of language˝1, identifiable as a modern
discipline since the 17th century. Etymology obviously designates the
diachronic branch of linguistics studying the origin and the phonetic,
semantic and morphologic evolution of the words, as well as the very
provenance of a term. On the other hand, the well-known linguist and
professor Yakov Malkiel, in his book entitled precisely Etymology, deems
definitions like ˝the science of the origin of words˝ much too reductive and
proposes a quasi-mystical approach of the notion, taking into account the
cultural-magical charge that the socio-historical context confers to the
word, a charge that transcends time and renders etymology equivalent to
the initiation act of solving a riddle or a mystery2.
2. The Liguro-Iberian substrate
Contrary to the generalised perception according to which the Celts had been the first
inhabitants of Gaul, ancestors of the French people, far from being the first to have
reached this land, they were preceded by populations coming from North-Eastern Europe,
1 Jacqueline PICOCHE, Christiane MARCHELLO-NIZIA Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, p. 3232 Yakov MALKIEL, Etymology, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993, p. 1
respectively from Africa: the Ligures and the Iberians3 and, as it shall be further
demonstrated, the Greeks. The Ligures occupied, before the Iberians, Ron basin,
Franche-Comté, Switzerland, the Alps and Northern Italy, and their language left
especially toponymical traces4. Suffixes such as -ascus/ -a, -oscus/ -a, uscus/ -a are
considered to be of Liguric origin. An example in this sense is the toponym Venasque,
transformed afterwards into Vindasca, at present Comtat-Venaissin. One term preserved
in French, entered through the Provençal dialect, is calanque, derived from the
Liguric calanca, which designates the fiords from the coastal area
between Marseille and Toulon, once inhabited by the Ligures. In
exchange, the Iberians occupied the South-western part of Gaul, most
probably around the 6th century BC, but the terms of Iberian origin are
rare in French, an example being the word esquer (Spanish izquierdo)
which means “left”5.
3. The Greek colonies
Amid the Iberian invasion, the Mediterranean coast was colonized by
Dorians and Greeks from Asia Minor. This can be confirmed by the
etymology of a series of toponyms. In this sense, Marseille derives from
the Greek form Massalía (latinized as Massília), Monaco is the actual form of the
Greek toponym Heraklēs Monoikos (which attests the existence of the cult of Heracles in
this area), whereas Nice originates from the Greek toponym Níkaia, meaning ˝victorious˝.
Having exercised a better preserved influence in the Midi dialects, especially in
Provençal, the Greek language left many traces in the French
vocabulary, some of them latinized, like the verb blasphemeín, in Latin
blapshemare, from which the French verb blâmer derived. Another example would be the
term fantôme, originating from the Greek phantásma, as well as the adjectiv biais, derived
from the Greek term epikársios (inclined)6.
4. The Celtic legacy
3 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, p. 15
4 Ibidem, p. 16 5 Ibidem6 Ibidem, p. 20
The Gauls arrived during the 5th century BC on the territory to which
they would be the first to give a name, preserved even after the Roman
conquest: Gaul. Among the essential elements of the linguistic Celtic
heritage, best conserved in the French local dialects7, we may identify
toponyms such as Lyon < Lugdunum, Verdun < Virodunum, which
illustrate a certain recurrence in the toponymical sphere of the suffix
dunon (Latinized as dunum and serving as a root for the English town)
that signified hill or fortification. We cannot omit toponyms resulted, in
a Latinized form, from the names of the Celtic tribes who inhabited
them: Paris < Lutetia Parisiorum (perhaps the most famous example in
this sense), Nantes < Portum Namnetum (inhabited by the Namnet
tribe)8. We may also mention that a series of terms related to family
life, environment and domestic activities (especially agricultural) are of
Celtic origin.
We shall further analyze two pairs of terms of Celtic origin, which
encountered a spectacular evolution: baccalauréat, bachelier, and respectively
captif, chétif. The word bachelier represents a suffixed form of the old bacheler (attested
during the 11th century). The latter originates from the Vulgar Latin form baccalarius,
attested in the 9th century, derived from the Gaelic term baccalaria, meaning small
property. Baccalarius came therefore to define a small owner of inferior position in the
medieval hierarchy, also having the secondary meaning of ˝single˝ (preserved in the case
of the English word bachelor), given the financial and social status insufficiently
developed yet, incompatible with the status of a married person. During the 12th century,
the word receives the general meaning of young and brave man, while four centuries later,
it would evolve in the form bachelier, designating the graduate of a faculty. Strongly
connected to this reality, the term baccalauréat, derived in the 17th century from the
medieval relatinized form baccalaureatus of the word baccalarius, designated all the
students of the French universities. The laurel was the symbol of success, so that the
French students of the time pretended that the term came from the Latin structure baca
larius (laurel fruit, in a rough translation). Consequently, by the manipulation of a false
etymology, the term was restored in 1680 and francised as baccalauréat, coming to
7 Ibidem, p. 258 http://www.culture-generale.fr/geographie/223-toponymie-origine-des-noms-des-villes-francaises-22, site consulted on 9. 04. 2009
designate later on (then and now) the secondary studies graduation certificate9. As far as
the two terms captif and chétif are concerned, they share, despite their actual
completely distinct semantic values, the same provenance in the Old
French word chaitif10. This term evolved from the Vulgar Latin form
cactivum, which presents a double etymology: Latin – by the Latin
adjective captivum, based on the participle captum of the verb capere,
and Celtic – by the noun cactos (we should mention the existence of the
Irish cacht and the Briton caez, both having the meaning of servant). Its
etymologic, primary sense, still preserved in the term captif, was that
of captive, prisoner. Subsequently, throughout the Middle Age, the term
received, in court language, the secondary sense of lover kept by his
woman, whereas in the ecclesiastic language it achieved the meaning
of mean, doomed. In turn, the additional connotation of physical
weakness is directly related to the bad treatment applied to prisoners
in medieval prisons and is conserved at present in the term chétif.
5. Romanization and relatinization – identity elements of the French language
The Roman conquest of Gaul took place subsequent to the war described in detail by its
main artisan, Caius Iulius Caesar, in his work ˝De bello gallico˝, between 58 and 51 BC. It
gave birth to an essential stage in the history of this territory fragmented until then by
tribal rivalries and migrations, which was now to know a unitary political organization
and security that unfortunately would not last for long11. Key-element of the integration
process of the conquered, generically named romanization, the latinization of the province
determined the very fundamental Romanic character of what was to become the French
language. Jacqueline Picoche and Christiano-Marchello-Nizia show that the main
vocabulary of the French language is articulated almost entirely on the Gallo-Roman fond,
to which was added the relatinization process in the Middle Age by the calques of savant
vocabulary on written Latin12. These processes are illustrated in the following analysis of
the semantic and morphological evolution of terms of Latin origin.
9 Laurence HÉLIX, L’épreuve du vocabulaire d’ancien français, Fiches de sémantique Editions du Temps, Paris, 1999, pp. 27-3010 Ibidem, pp. 38-4011 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, p. 3112 Jacqueline PICOCHE, Christiane MARCHELLO-NIZIA, Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, 1998, p. 324
Chose and rien represent two of the oldest French words, both initially having
somewhat general and vague significations. Chose derived from the Latin causa, with the
initial sense of reason, jurisdictional context, situation or case13. In Vulgar Latin, causa
acquires the denotation of thing, substituting the noun res14 and appearing in Old French
as cosa in the first written text in French - ˝Les serments de Strasbourg˝ (˝The Strasbourg
oaths˝) (842)15. Rien (in its old form riens) originates from the Latin res and had a
relatively general meaning: thing, matter, good, process, reason. If throughout the
following centuries the two terms were semantically concurrent, they become more
clearly opposed in the morpho-syntactic field. Thus, cosa remains exclusively a noun,
whereas riens evolves towards the categories of adverb (with the sense of ˝in any respect˝)
and indefinite pronoun (denoting ˝something˝, ˝anything˝), subsequently specializing in
hypothetical and superlative structures, less and less semantically determined. Having
changed its genre from feminine to masculine, it gradually acquires a dominantly negative
context usage and is accompanied by the negative adverb ne, until the 16th century, when
it achieves an exclusively negative value16, preserved nowadays as we very well know.
The second pair of terms, dextre-sinistre, derives from the Latin couple dexter-sinister
(the – ter suffix marks the binary opposition in Latin) transformed in Old French into the
forms destre-senestre, primarily with a spatial denotation: left-right. But in Latin this
spatial sense is doubled by a metaphorical, abstract one: dexter has a positive connotation,
sinister had a negative one17. The distinction appears as a consequence of the practice of
the Greek-Roman rite of augurs that predicted the future according to the direction in
which the birds used in this ritual flew. In fact, the collective mental itself associates right
with the principles of positivism, solar, masculine, whilst left is related to the idea of evil,
nocturne. The adjective in the feminine genre dextra, initially collocated to the noun
manus, became itself a noun after manus fell out of usage, which resulted in the new noun
dextra, designating the right hand. It did not have the same abstract connotations in
French as in Latin, although a certain symbolical opposition right-left was observed in the
medieval Christian iconography. After the relatinization of the French language, destre
evolved into its actual form dextre, nowadays used exclusively in the field of Heraldic or
13 Auguste SCHELER, Dictionnaire d’étymologie française d’après les résultats de la science moderne, , Imprimerie de Labrour et Mertens, Paris, 1862, p.7614 Ibidem15 Laurence HÉLIX, L’épreuve du vocabulaire d’ancien français, Fiches de sémantique Editions du Temps, Paris, 1999, p. 5316 Ibidem, p.5417 Ibidem, p. 79
Zoology, but we may take notice of the persistence of the term dextérité (practical manual
ability). In turn, senestre transformed into sinistre, but kept an exclusively metaphorical
semantic value, synonym to lugubrious. In order to denote the spatial sense, only the terms
gauche, derived from the verb gaucher, originating from the Germanic verb guenchir
(meaning to make a detour, thus we may assume that the etymological sense of this origin
verb converges somehow with the idea of detour from the moral, right way) and
respectively droit, deriving from the Latin directum, which in medieval French and up to
the 16th century, signified the ˝right moral˝18.
6. Germanic etymologies : the Franc superstrate and the Norman invasion
The 4th - 5th centuries BC represented a time of intense migrations and invasions of the
Gaul by Germanic populations, forced to abandon their former territories as a result of the
Hun invasion. Among them, the Saxons subsequently determined, by the invasion of the
Britannic Isles, the movement of the Briton populations towards the region that bore the
Celtic name of Aremorica, today named Bretagne19. They were followed by the Francs led
by King Clovis who occupied Gaul in 486, creating thus the linguistic frontier between the
germanophone and the francophone territories, a line that crosses Belgium from East to
West. Needless to say, it was this Franc conquest that had a special relevance in the
crystallization of the French language. The Franc superstate is visible in numerous terms
belonging to military and administrative vocabulary, but also to the basic vocabulary20:
blesser< bletjan (to wound), navrer< nafarra (the etimological meaning was to sting, the
actual one – to dissapoint ), meurtir<murdrir (10th century form) <murthrjan (to commit
murder)21, garder<wardôn22 (to overlook), guerrir<warjan23 (to heal),
maréchal<marskalk24 (leader of cavalry), baron< baro (high-rank official, at present in
the argotic language it means sponsor, supporter)25. But beyond these examples, the
Germanic adjective frank, latinized in the 3rd century as francus, is the very etymon of the
name of the French people and country. It is related to two realities: an ethnical one
18 Ibidem, p.8019 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, pp.55-5620 Jacqueline Picoche, Christiane Marchello-Nizia, Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, 1998, p.32421 Laurence Hélix, L’épreuve du vocabulaire d’ancien français, Fiches de sémantique Editions du Temps, Paris, 1999, pp.35-3822 Auguste Scheler, Dictionnaire d’étymologie française d’après les résultats de la science moderne, , Imprimerie de Labrour et Mertens, Paris, 1862, p.15223 Ibidem, p. 18124 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, p.5725 Laurence Hélix, L’épreuve du vocabulaire d’ancien français, Fiches de sémantique Editions du Temps, Paris, 1999, p.30
(representing the name of the Franc people) and a juridical one – denoting the free man
status, for after the Franc invasion, they appear to be a free and autonomous people, the
ethnical value of francus giving away before this semen of free man, Germanic or non-
Germanic. This is where the term franchisse derived from, having the initial sense of
freedom and nobility, nowadays denoting exemption from taxes26.
The Norman invasion took place around the 9th-10th centuries and brought its contribution
to toponymy and especially to the marine vocabulary27: étrave<stafn (groyne), bitte<bita
(bollard). However, the term that shall be further analyzed is related to spiritual life. The
etymological dictionary of August Scheler describes the term bigot as originally being an
offensive word initially applied to Normans. According to a French chronicle, a certain
duke Rollon refused to kiss the feet of King Charles saying in English ˝ne se bi god˝
(never by God)28. This anecdote, observes Diez, could have been made up to explain the
term and, despite its actual verisimilitude, the author does not accept the etymon bi god as,
according to the permutation laws, the final ˝d˝ could not have rebecome ˝t˝ but should
have transformed into ˝i˝. Other authors see bigot as a form that evolved from the Italian
bigotto, originating from the etymons beguine or beguttae, names of religious sects,
aspiring to a life of devotion to God and wearing the grey clothes of the Franciscan
monks. On the other hand, Diez states that the origin of the term could as well be
correlated to the Spanish expression hombre de bigote (moustache), which means ˝person
of strong, harsh character˝.
7. Oriental interactions and etymologies
The contacts between Mediterranean Europe and the oriental world, especially Arabs,
began after their entering the Mediterranean Basin, around the 7th century29. The
commercial relations these two spaces shared, the crusades, the Maury domination in
Spain, the foundation of the Arab universities of Toledo, Seville, Grenada and Cordoba,
the journeys of Europeans in the East, as well as the dissemination of the oriental culture
and knowledge by means of Mathematics, Medicine and Astronomy books, an entire
series of factors favored the development of West-East interactions30. Linguistically, these
26 Ibidem, p.12027 Jacqueline Picoche, Christiane Marchello-Nizia, Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, 1998, p.32428 Auguste Scheler, Dictionnaire d’étymologie française d’après les résultats de la science moderne, , Imprimerie de Labrour et Mertens, Paris, 1862, p.4929 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, p. 7630 L.Marcel Devic, Dictionnaire etymologique des mots francais d’origine orientale (arabe, persan, turc, hebreu, malais), Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1876, p.5
interactions left visible marks on the French vocabulary, as it will be seen in the analysis
of the following terms.
The term cafard is the equivalent of the Spanish and Portuguese cafre, signifying tough,
cruel, and originating from the Arab term kafir (unfaithful, delinquent)31. The author
Marcel Devic states that French term would have the same origin either under the
influence of the plural forms kifār, kouffar,kafara or by adding the pejorative morpheme
- ard. In the same way, the noun cimeterre, as well as the Spanish and Portuguese
cimitarra, the Italian schimitarra and the Romanian cimitir have the same origin in the
Persian word chimchīr, and share of course the same meaning (cemetery)32. Moreover, the
noun génie (whose old form was djin) is of Arab origin33, where the collective noun djin
designates the multitude of demons, supernatural beings, as opposed to human beings. The
term douane (customs house), like the Spanish aduana and the Italian dogana, evolved
from the Arab term of Persian origin dīouān, which denoted the registry book, and later on
the place where the civil servants that detained the registry books gathered, the State
Council, the assembly room, but also the customs house34. The nouns échecs and échec
also have a Persian origin. The name of the chess game originates from the alteration a
echāh, which means ˝the king˝, formed of the definite article ech and the Persian noun
chah (the king). The player who checkmates the other king warns his mate by saying ech
– chah (the king). The French expression échec et mat also is an alteration of the Arab
expression ech-chah-mat (the king is dead)35. Furthermore, the term golgotha, existing in
French, is explained by Greek evangelists as a derivation from γολγοθά, the place of the
skull, either because of its aspect, or because that certain place was filled with skulls of
punished people36. Actually, the term originates from the Caldean word goulgaltha, in
Hebrew goulgoleth (skull). In the same way, the proper noun Pâques (Easter) derives
from the latinized form pascha the Hebrew pesha that had the primary sense of Passover,
for the Jewish Easter was celebrated in remembrance of the escape from Egypt37.
8. The French Revolution and the rediscovery of classic etymons
31 Ibidem, p.7432 Ibidem, p.9633 Ibidem, p.10334 Ibidem, p.10435 Ibidem, p. 10736Ibidem, p.147 37Ibidem, p.138
Beyond its political, social and economic effects, The Great French Revolution of 1789
also had consequences of linguistic order. This was possible especially by means of the
policy regarding the national uniformity of the language and the abolition of regional
linguistic particularities, which was nothing but an instance of the inequality specific of
the Old Regime in the ideological system of the Revolution. The influence exercised by its
strongly politized discourse over the French language is visible in the lexical field. For
instance, a series of neologisms appeared in this context impregnated with party spirit,
propaganda, the idea of opposition, the fear of reaction and counter-revolution. They were
formed by the addition of neologic affixes, of the type –isme, -iste (for the designation of
the ideological orientation): robespierrisme, propagandisme, dantoniste, or the prefixes
anti- , in-, dé -, contre -, non-, ex- , which marked the opposition or the contrast:
antirépublicain, non-patriote, contre-révolution, ex-prêtre, dénationaliser, inviolable38.
But a large number of the elements used to create new terms that should reflect the new
political realities are of Greek and Latin origin, an aspect meant to support even more
arduously the propagandistic purposes, by a veneration and claim of a glorious past
(and above all, a republican one too) of the ancient European civilization. In this way, new
words such as lèse-nation, lèse-révolution, calqued on lèse-majesté, clubocratie,
calotinocratie, calqued on aristocratie, or derivations with the suffix – icide, with
remarkable stylistic effects: républicides, nationicides, liberticides. What is more, the
tendency to returning to the ancient past was notable even in onomastics, as more and
more often, names with a classical-mythological resonance like Achilles, Brutus, Marius,
were preferred to regular French names39.
9. Colonialism and industrial revolution
The 19th century marked what we generically name the industrial revolution and, strongly
connected to it, the colonial expansion. France represented one of the great colonial
powers and firmly affirmed its status throughout this century, extending its domination
especially over North Africa. On their return, the soldiers present in these territories
brought along on European land numerous terms of African origin, rapidly adopted by the
masses as well as by the elites: c’est kif-kif (it’s the same), maboul (crazy), gourbi
(rudimentary hut), toubib (doctor), razzia (term which denoted the invasions of other
tribes in the neighbouring territories, and entered the Police vocabulary)40. Furthermore, as
38 W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962, p. 21439 Ibidem, p.21540 Ibidem, p.234
Great Britain represented the most important actor in the industrial revolution
phenomenon, it is natural that through the implant of technological innovations, the
English language should exercise a considerable influence on French, especially with
regard to the technical terminology adopted: wagon, tunnel, express, ticket, water-closet,
in addition to which we may mention terms belonging to the alimentation field like: steak,
sandwich, cherry-brandy, cocktail, soda-water41.
41 Ibidem, pp.233-234
Bibliography
L.Marcel DEVIC, Dictionnaire etymologique des mots francais d’origine orientale (arabe, persan, turc, hebreu, malais), Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1876
Laurence HÉLIX, L’épreuve du vocabulaire d’ancien français, Fiches de sémantique Editions du Temps, Paris, 1999
Yakov MALKIEL, Etymology, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1993
Jacqueline PICOCHE, Christiane MARCHELLO-NIZIA, Histoire de la langue française, Nathan, Paris, 1998
Auguste SCHELER, Dictionnaire d’étymologie française d’après les résultats de la science moderne, , Imprimerie de Labrour et Mertens, Paris, 1862
W.v. WARTBURG, Evolution et structure de la langue française, A. Francke S.A.Berne, Bern, 1962