Legal Terms from French

This fourth post is on legal words from French that entered English after the Norman Conquest. The Anglo-Norman legal system forms the primary basis for the vocabulary of our modern legal system. 

A defendant is summoned to court, from the Old French cort, from the Latin word for yard. If it's a civil affair, one might hope that all people "present at court" (the original meaning of courtier) will be courteous, which originally meant "having manners fit for a royal court."

A complaint is filed by the plaintiff, from the Old French word plaintive — a "lamentation" — which is itself derived from a Latin word, planctus, meaning "beating of the breast."

During the course of a trial, both sides usually introduce evidence, from Old French meaning "obvious to the eye or mind." It's a word composed of the French prefix e ("out" as in evict) and videre "to see." Evidence is laid out for everyone to see.

Perhaps the defendant is in fact a felon, from the Old French word felon, which meant "wicked" or "a wicked person."

During a court hearing and in other legal matters, attorneys advocate and provide advocacy, words that came into Middle English from Old French, from a verb that meant "to call to one's aid." The voc root is also part of words like vocabulary, vocalize, vocation, vociferous, voice, vouch, voucher, vowel, equivocate, evocatory, provoke, and revoke.

A verdict could be made by a group of peers, a jury, from the Old French juree, an oath or inquiry. Or perhaps, the judge will enter a judgment in the final stages of the judicial process and justice will have been served. These are words that came into English through French, and all revolve around the Latin root jus — "law" and also "right." It's also the root for judicious and judiciary.

More words from French

Words of War from French

Our continuing series of words from French that entered English after the Norman invasion of 1066 brings us to words of warfare and the military. It is not surprising that some words that entered English after William the Conqueror of Normandy, France, defeated Old English-speaking Saxons at the Battle of Hastings, and that this category of words was part of that change. Within the course of a few centuries, English went from being a strictly Germanic language to one infused with a large Latinate vocabulary, which came via French.

The English adapted from their French-speaking Norman invaders many words surrounding elements of war. We send to faraway lands, for example, our soldiers, a word that came to us in Middle English from the Old French word soldier from soulde, the Latin word for a "gold coin of the Roman Empire."

Our soldiers are sent off in battalions to do battle, from Old French bataille, based on late Latin battualia describing "military or gladiatorial exercises" — from the Latin root verb "to beat."

In the course of the war, sometimes a sergeant (Old French, sergent) or commander calls for a siege, based on the Old French sege — from asegier, a verb that means "to besiege." Originally, in Middle English, besiege meant to "sit down in front of."

The Old French verb armer means "to supply with weapons" and is the basis of our army, as well as armor and armory. Navy also came into Middle English from Old French, from the Latin word for ship, navis, which also forms the root of navigation.

A traitor is a person guilty of treason, both from Anglo-Norman French treisoun, meaning "handing over."

The word war itself is distinctly Anglo-Norman. The late Old English word werre, which evolved to modern English war, is from an Anglo-Norman French variant of the Old (and Modern) French word guerre.

Werre (Old English war) also shares a Germanic base with the word "worse." The old Germanic werra indicated "confusion, discord." (Modern German developed a different word entirely for war, krieg.) Middle English warrior is from Old Northern French werreior, a variation of guerreior, "to make war."

A war can end after defeat or retreat (Old French retraiter, "to pull back") or after a treaty (Old French traite), and this might lead to everlasting peace, which came to English from Latin pax via the French word pais.

More words from French

My Morning Jacket

cover of is (import album)

My Morning Jacket is an American rock band formed in 1998 in Louisville, Kentucky. They are known for their psychedelic hippie rock. The band is comprised of Jim James (singer-songwriter, guitarist), Tom 'Two-Tone Tommy' Blankenship (bassist), Patrick Hallahan (drummer), Carl Broemel (guitarist, pedal steel guitarist, saxophonist, vocalist), and Bo Koster (keyboardist, percussionist, vocalist).

The band at the Newport Folk Festival in 2015

They are a great example of a band that doesn't really want to explain their band name origin. I might even guess that the name My Morning Jacket has no real origin, hence the mystery.

During our research, we found an article from 2008 by The Independent that revealed a story that lead singer Jim James had told in regard to the band’s name. According to the article, James was visiting an old friend and discovered that his favorite bar had burned down. In these burned remains, he found a jacket with the initials “MMJ” stitched on it, and thus My Morning Jacket was born.

However, other sources claim that James has told numerous, conflicting stories about how the band’s name came to be. He has said that the name came from him writing down various things in a lyrics notebook and that My Morning Jacket happened to be one of those things. He’s also said that the name is just “a weird name for a band.” 

A similar story to the one in that article by Jim James who said he was visiting his old student-hangout bar (Boot's Bar in Lexington), which had been razed by a fire. Amongst the charred remains, he came upon a jacket which had stitched "MMJ", which he took to mean "My Morning Jacket."

A rather far-fetched story is that it is slang for when a man wakes up in the morning with an erection with a condom already on.

This online post collects a number of origins

Literary Words from French

This is the second of our series of words from French that entered English after the Norman invasion of 1066. When William the Conqueror of Normandy, France, defeated Old English-speaking Saxons led by Harold II, King of England, at the Battle of Hastings, many words entered English. This did not happen immediately but was a process over the course of several centuries. English moved from being a Germanic-based language to one with a large Latinate vocabulary via French. In this post, we look at words referring to literature.

The death of Harold, as shown on the Bayeux Tapestry

The English word literature comes down from the Old French lettre. In the singular, the word in French refers to a member of the alphabet; when it's plural, it's as broad as it is in our phrase "Arts and Letters," encompassing literature and culture.

The pen came into English from the Old French penne, "a feather with a sharpened quill." It was dipped in enque, the Old French word for ink came from a Latin word that described the purple fluid meant for a very specific use - the Roman emperor's official stamp of approval.

Various genres of English literature derive their names from French roots, some of which ultimately derive from Greek. Poet, for example, we got from the Old French word poete, which entered French from Greek via Latin. In Greek, there's poiein, a verb meaning "to create." And in Greek there is poetes, "maker, poet." In Middle English, "poetry" at first referred to creative literature as a whole.

Tragedy in English is from the Old French tragedie via Latin from Greek tragoidia. The reasoning behind the Greek roots (tragos, meaning "goat" and oide "ode, song") is not entirely clear. On that note, mystery, from Old French mistere, was a word first used in English with the sense of "mystic presence" or "hidden religious" symbolism.

Comedy at first referred in English to a genre of stories in which the ending was a happy one. It also came into Middle English through Old French, via Latin from Greek, where it's a compound of the words "revel" and "singer." Comedian first referred to a person who wrote comic plays, and then — in the late 1800s — developed the sense of a person who stands in front of an audience and tells jokes.

Journal is from Old French jurnal, or "belonging to a day." At first, it was a sort of reference book that contained the times of daily prayers. In the 1600s, it acquired the meaning of "diary" and later became associated with newspaper titles and lent its root to journalism.

More words from French

Food Words and the Norman Invasion of England

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting Norman ships grounding and horses landing in England

On a recent trip to England, I visited the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, where the Battle of Hastings occurred. William the Conqueror of Normandy arrived on British soil, and the French-speaking Normans eventually defeated the Old English-speaking Saxons at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066.

The defeat is said to have a more pronounced effect on the development of the English language than any other event in history. Within the course of a few centuries, English went from being a strictly Germanic language to one infused with a large Latinate vocabulary, which came via French.

The French brought us all sorts of words that surround cooking, including the word gourmet, which in Old French was gromet, a wine-taster's assistant. At first, the term was used in jest, a satirical way to describe persons overly preoccupied with food, but the term became respectable and then even fashionable. Gourmand, French for glutton, is from the same root, and in early use, it carried with it a sense of moral disapproval, because food was often in short supply and so gluttony was hence deemed to be a serious transgression.

We get the word for supper, super, "to take one's evening meal, as well as the word for dinner from this occupation. In Old French, the word was disner, which evolved from a Latin word meaning "to break fast." 

A dinner entrée might feature any of these types of meat whose English names were derived from French:

Beef — from Old French boef, meaning "bull." The name for the farm animal, cow, remained in use from Old English.

Mutton — from Old French muton. The sheep, which gave its flesh, also maintained its Old English name.

Pork — from Old French porc, from Latin porcus. The Old English name again remains for the farm animal — swine — and we again use the French-derived name for what's served at the table.

The meat could be served in the form of a cutlet, a word stemming from the French côtelette, "little rib." Perhaps the meat is roasted, from the Old French rostir. It originally meant to cook before a fire; now, it has evolved so that it generally means to "cook in an oven." 

The verb grill, which people now often use to refer to cooking over a fire, comes from the French word for grate, the metal grid that separates the flame from the food. In the early 1700s, roast came to take on the meaning of "ridicule" or "criticize" — and today, we see celebrities and politicians roasted on late-night television.

And if you'd like a salad with that, you're asking for something derived from a French word — salade — from Latin salata, meaning "that which is salted." Although vinegar and oil were already available and used as condiments, early dressings for leaves of lettuce were often comprised of salt water.

Salt is also firmly rooted in the words salsa, sauce and saucy, and in the word salary. Before technology revolutionized the harvesting of salt into a cheap and easy process, salt was extremely precious, and soldiers of the Roman Empire were often paid part of their wages — that is, their salary — in the form of measured amounts of salt. Salt's ancient value as an important commodity also helps to explain the phrase "worth [his] salt."

More words in English from French