Specialist dictionary

French and Romance origins

French, Latin and Romance-language influence on English vocabulary.

Areas within French and Romance origins

Etymology

Core terminology for the history, development and derivation of words.

54 words

Roots and affixes

Vocabulary for roots, stems, prefixes, suffixes and combining forms.

65 words

Borrowing and loanwords

Terms for words borrowed, translated or adapted between languages.

108 words

Semantic change

Processes by which word meanings broaden, narrow, improve, deteriorate or shift.

63 words

Historical word formation

Compounding, derivation, clipping, blending, back-formation and other ways words arise.

107 words

Greek and Latin origins

Terminology for classical roots and the Greek and Latin contribution to English.

70 words

Germanic origins

Old English, Norse and wider Germanic contributions to English vocabulary.

56 words

French and Romance origins

French, Latin and Romance-language influence on English vocabulary.

26 words

Core vocabulary

27 featured terms

The database can contain more terms than shown here; this page prioritises the strongest mappings.

Adoptionnoun

the appropriation (of ideas or words etc.) from another source; "the borrowing of ancient motifs was very apparent"

Anglo-Frenchnoun

the French (Norman) language used in medieval England

Anglo-French languagenoun

the French (Norman) language used in medieval England

Anglo-Normannoun

the French (Norman) language used in medieval England

Anglo-Norman languagenoun

the French (Norman) language used in medieval England

Borrowingnoun

the appropriation (of ideas or words etc.) from another source; "the borrowing of ancient motifs was very apparent"

Frenchnoun

the Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by France

French languagenoun

the Romance language spoken in France and in countries colonized by France

Italiannoun

the Romance language spoken in Italy

Italian languagenoun

the Romance language spoken in Italy

Latinadjective

of or relating to the ancient Latins or the Latin language; "Latin verb conjugations"

Latinadjective

relating to languages derived from Latin; "Romance languages"

Normannoun

an inhabitant of Normandy

Portuguesenoun

the Romance language spoken in Portugal and Brazil

Portuguese languagenoun

the Romance language spoken in Portugal and Brazil

Romanceadjective

relating to languages derived from Latin; "Romance languages"

Spanishnoun

the Romance language spoken in most of Spain and the countries colonized by Spain

Spanish languagenoun

the Romance language spoken in most of Spain and the countries colonized by Spain

Castiliannoun

the Spanish language as spoken in Castile

Ladinonoun

the Spanish dialect spoken by Sephardic Jews but written in the Hebrew script

Langue d'ocnoun

the medieval dialects of Langue d'oc (southern France)

Langue d'oilnoun

the earliest form of the French language; 9th to 15th century

Misappropriationnoun

wrongful borrowing; "his explanation was a misappropriation of sociological theory"

Naturalisationnoun

changing the pronunciation of a borrowed word to agree with the borrowers' phonology; "the naturalization in English of many Italian words"

Naturalizationnoun

changing the pronunciation of a borrowed word to agree with the borrowers' phonology; "the naturalization in English of many Italian words"

Sardiniannoun

the Italian dialect spoken in Sardinia; sometimes considered a separate language with many loan words from Spanish

Tuscannoun

a dialect of Italian spoken in Tuscany (especially Florence)