This is the kind of story I love. Did you know that a unicorn gets its name from a double mistake? Yes! This fabulous animal was named in Latin unicorns, in other words “with a single horn”. Only here: over time, our “unicorn” has been understood as the indefinite article “une” followed by the noun “icorne”: “an icorn”. In the process, we therefore “logically” created “the icorn”, with a definite article. First mistake! But we didn’t stop there. A little later, we lost sight of the fact that they were two separate words and brought them together into one: “the icorn” then became “unicorn”, hence “the unicorn”!
Not bad, right?
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This is an amusing illustration of the fate of certain terms that we call welded words. We use them every day without paying attention, forgetting that originally, they consisted of two different terms. And yet, these agglutinations, as linguists also say, occur frequently, as you will see.
Some present all the outside of the evidence. “Hello” of course corresponds to a composition associating “good” and “day”. “Bonhomme” is the union of “good” and “man”. The same goes for “farewell”, “intermission”, “ma’am”, “wallet”, etc.
Others have been slightly distorted by time and are a (very little) more difficult to recognize. “Naguère” thus corresponds to the fusion of the expression “n’a peu” (not long ago); “gendarme” to the connection of “people” and “weapon”, and “vinegar” to that of “wine” and “sour”. In this last example, it is the pronunciation that has changed, since we do not pronounce “wine” “sour”, but “vi-naigre”. Initially, however, it was indeed a wine soured by the production of acetic acid.
Still others require real linguistic knowledge to be reconstructed. Judge instead:
The expression “to be fooled” is the contraction of “de” and “hoopoe”, this term designating a sparrow known to be stupid. Originally a slang term, it subsequently entered literary language with the meaning of “credulous”, “naive”, “simple”, meanings which are also found in “plumed” and “pigeon”. Poor peeps!
“Jadis” is the evolution of the old I said, say referring to days (as in Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, all from Latin diem). We must therefore understand “several days ago”.
Even more extravagant: like our unicorn, certain welded words result from totally incredible “miscuts”. In short: errors in the written transcription of the division of sounds that we hear orally. Judge instead.
We often ignore it, but “the next day” is a terrible pleonasm! Indeed, we are dealing here with the agglutination of the article “l” and the word “tomorrow”. It was by dint of making the connection that the error was made. “Tomorrow”, which was sufficient in itself, ended up being perceived as a word in itself, so much so that we felt the need to precede it with a superfluous “the”. A bit like saying “the washer” or “the storm”…
Same phenomenon for ivy, which was written in the Middle Ages iere Or stone. This word actually comes from the Latin hedera and should therefore be written “l’ierre”. Note in passing that the term also changed gender, since it was initially feminine.
“Tante” is the contraction of old French your ante, ante (without the initial “t”) designating the father’s or mother’s sister (it is easily recognized in English aunt).
Error again for “l’alaise” (we can also write “l’alèse”) since it is in fact the width, this last word initially having the general meaning of “width”, and in particular “width of fabric”. It is due to a misinterpretation that the width has become “the sheet”…
The same goes for “la griotte”, which should in fact be written “l’agriotte”, since the term comes from Provençal agriota (sour cherry).
This is also probably the case for “the shop”, which is supposed to come from the Greek apothêkê (place of deposit, food store), the store becoming over time “the boutique”. We also find the original word in “apothecary”, a late creation of the 13th century.
So many oddities which, according to some, would justify a serious reform of our spelling, but which, according to others, contribute on the contrary to the charm of the French language…
Source : Historical dictionary of the French languageed. the Robert.
THIS LETTER IS INTERRUPT DURING THE HOLIDAYS. SEE YOU AT THE BACK TO SCHOOL!
Read elsewhere
23% of residents of the Grand Est say they understand a regional language
This is the conclusion of a survey carried out by the Ministry of Culture in this region (6% “spontaneous” positive responses, 17% positive responses after reminder). A result that is all the more encouraging as this percentage takes into account Platt (or Frankish) and Lorraine, but, curiously, not Alsatian, the language most spoken in the Grand Est. 27% of residents also say they regret not understanding at least one of the region’s languages.
Justice bans the use of Catalan as a first language during municipal councils
The administrative court of Toulouse has just banned the use of Catalan as a first language during the municipal councils of five communes in the Pyrénées-Orientales, authorizing only a translation after a first reading in French. An absurdity, according to Nicolas Garcia, the mayor of Elne: “If we start with French, the listener has understood everything and no longer listens to the translation.” The elected officials will now refer the matter to the Council of State, then to the European Court of Strasbourg, in order to plead “the violation of linguistic rights”, explained their lawyer, Me Mathieu Pons-Serradeil. The municipality of Elne will initiate a “civil disobedience” movement during the municipal council meeting on December 18 with speeches in Catalan, then in French.
10 words that changed their meaning
Did you know? Our “baby bottle” initially designated the spout of a vase; “subjugate” meant “to bring under the yoke, to submit”; a “strapontin” was initially a small mattress… In this article, the Robert editions return to the original meaning of ten words from our current vocabulary.
Is an anglicism a French word?
Yes, say Jérôme Piron and Arnaud Hoedt, two members of the Linguistes attéré·e·s collective. “An Anglicism, by definition, is a French word or at least Frenchified. Otherwise, it would just be an English word, they summarize. An Anglicism, like “spoiler” or “youtubeur”, it is a French word of English origin, like “pantalon” is a French word of Italian origin or “nénufar” a French word of Persian origin. So why oppose Anglicism and the French word?” An opinion that is both provocative and well-argued and which one may, like me, not share, for reasons that I have already explained and to which I will return in a future article.
French, third most studied language in the world on Duolingo
Unsurprisingly, English remains the most studied language in the world on Duolingo, a successful teaching app. Learners favor it because they consider it the most useful for their studies and their professional careers. French comes in third place, behind Spanish, but ahead of German and Japanese.
Take part in the 2025 Golden Words competition
If you are a French teacher or librarian, you can register your students for the 2025 Words in Gold competition. Organized by the Voltaire Foundation, this original test invites students from sixth to second grade to enrich their lexical background through an adventure in team throughout the year.
What if you offered a multilingual creation kit?
The Dulala association (for “from one language to another”) has developed a fun folding game which invites children to have fun with languages.
New French-Alsatian lexicon on everyday vocabulary
The Office for the Language and Cultures of Alsace and Moselle (Olca) is publishing a new bilingual French-Alsatian lexicon devoted to the words and expressions of daily life: “Wàs brücht m’r ìm Elsàss?“. It is available in paper, digital and audio versions.
Usual Gascon-French and French-Gascon dictionary
This work is not only lexicographic, since its author, Louis-Marie Braun-Darrigrand, pursues three other ambitions: a modernization of the spelling, a shift away from Béarn, a traditionally privileged area in the Gascon region as a whole, and a study history dedicated to the links between Gascons, Vascons and Vikings.
Usual Gascon-French dictionary, French-Gasconby Louis-Marie Braun-Darrigrand. ed. the Esvelhadou.
To listen
Catalan and regional languages, a threat to the State?
Philippe Blanchet believes that the refusal of justice to let the municipalities of the Pyrénées-Orientales deliberate first in Catalan then in French is “dogma”. “The argument,” says the sociolinguistics professor, “is that other languages would be a threat. This has obviously never been proven, especially since several European countries have several official languages such as Spain, Italy, Switzerland or Belgium […]. We have a pyramidal vision where Paris must impose itself on the rest of the territory with its language.
To watch
Bayrou, fervent supporter of regional languages
We can think what we want about French Bayrou, but the new Prime Minister is undoubtedly a fervent supporter of regional languages. Watch it here after the censorship of the Molac law (the only one ever passed on the subject under the Fifth Republic) by the Constitutional Council, which the mayor of Pau denounces as “a false interpretation of the Constitution”. “I was a member of Parliament when we voted for this article “the language of the Republic is French”, he recalls. We voted for it to fight against English and we are using this weapon unduly to attack France’s precious regional languages. It remains to be seen whether the host of Matignon will have the will and the time to take an interest in this subject.
My Christmas present: Lo Boier, by the Samaïa group
Who will ever say the beauty of polyphony, especially when it is served by three magnificent voices? Listen to this version of a classic from the Occitan repertoire, Lo Boier (the plowman), performed in a manner as original as it is moving by the group Samaïa.
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