Seven English words that you may not realise are French

We use many French terms in everyday English, some of which, such as déjà vu and hors d’oeuvre are conspicuous, however the vast majority do not feel foreign at all. We look at seven of them.

While a precise estimate is difficult, linguists have suggested that between 30% and 60% of the entire language was taken from French.

Much of this influence dates back to the Norman invasion of 1066, after which, French (and more precisely Norman French) became widely spoken in England, particularly by the royal family, the courts and noblemen. 

In fact, every English king from 1066 to around 1362 spoke French as their mother tongue. This has led to a considerable French influence on the English language and to many words becoming part of English vocabulary. 

While a precise estimate is difficult, linguists have suggested that between 30% and 60% of the entire language was taken from French.

Read more: ‘Anglicisms? They are French words we loaned to English after 1066’

Below is a list of seven English words that you might not have realised actually come from French. 

Ambulance 

The word ‘ambulance’ is derived from the French term ‘hôpital ambulant’, meaning mobile or walking hospital. The hospital part was then dropped and ambulance became the word for the vehicle. 

It is worth noting that ‘hospital’ also came from French. The Old French word was ‘ospital’, hence the English term. 

In French, many words with an ‘s’ after a vowel like ‘ospital’ were replaced with the accent circonflexe or circumflex accent (◌̂). So, despite coming from Old French, hospital is most likely a newer word than ‘hôpital’.

Chef 

The word ‘chef’, which was taken directly from French, was originally not linked to food. In Old French, it meant head, from the latin ‘caput’, which is where the word ‘chief’ comes from. 

Then, the term ‘chef de cuisine’ appeared, meaning ‘head of the kitchen’. The English language only borrowed the chef part, hence the term for cook that we have today. 

Cinema 

While there is debate over who invented the cinema, the frère Lumières, Louis and Auguste, are credited with popularising modern cinema. They were the first to project a film in public thanks to a machine that they invented. 

They also coined cinématographe, from the Greek terms kinêma, meaning movement, and graphein, meaning to write. The term cinema is a shortening of cinématographe and duly passed into English. 

Read more: When French starts to sound like English native speakers feel confused

Mistress 

Similar to hospital, the term ‘mistress’ is most likely older than the French maitresse, but both come from the Old French word ‘maistresse’. 

The term maitresse can be used in a variety of different ways, most commonly referring to a female teacher or to a married man’s lover. 

Battle

This word is another example of simplification from French to English. Battuō means to hit, strike or beat in Latin. The term battuālia was then born, meaning fighting or fencing exercises. In turn, this led to bataille, which then became ‘battle’ in English. 

Judge 

As you may have noticed, a lot of these words have Latin roots, became adopted in Old French and then passed into English. 

This is the case for ‘judge’, which originates from the Latin jus (law) and dicere (to say, similar to the French word dire). This eventually became juge (the noun judge) and juger (the verb judge) in Old French, which both became ‘judge’ in English.

Read more: Use French expressions to say what you mean in English

Camel 

The word camel originated from the Latin camelus, which became chameau in Old French. 

The reason that the French word is chameau and the English word is camel is because of the difference in accent between Norman French and Parisian French. 

Normans pronounced the ‘ch’ sound as a ‘k’ while Parisians pronounced it as a ‘sh’. Another example of this is planche and plank.