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French Words of Chinese Origin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Urban T. Holmes Jr.
Urban T. Holmes Jr.*
Affiliation:
The University of North Carolina
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Extract

When we consult an etymological dictionary, particularly a dictionary of a living tongue, we should prefer not to find such broad statements as ‘stammt angeblich aus dem Chinesischen’ or ‘Emprunt du chinois’ with no effort made to record the precise etyma. It so happens that there are ten modern French words, no longer considered foreign by the French speaker, which are supposedly of Chinese origin. These are ailante, cangue, cannequin (or caniquis), ginseng, jonque, kao-ling, moxa, poussa, typhon, and thé. Except in the case of typhon Ernst Gamillscheg contents himself with the German phrase which I have quoted. His important source, the Dictionnaire général of Hatzfeld, Darmesteter, and Thomas, is more specific than this at times, but even there we often find no etymon cited or an occasional inaccurate statement such as ‘ailante, emprunté du chinois ailanto’, whereas ailanto cannot possibly be claimed as a native Chinese word. In Chinese this tree is called ch'u (2627) or ch'ou ch'un (2521 and 2856). Karl Lokotsch in his dictionary of European words of Oriental origin has used almost exclusively as his source for Chinese words an article by Hirth in Herrigs Archiv. The very recent etymological dictionary of the French language prepared by Oscar Bloch, with the collaboration of von Wartburg, is far superior in its treatment, but it omits some of the words in question, and in several other instances we are inclined to differ with it. Where any of these ten French words are also current in English the NED is certainly the best reference of all. It is our intention here to check these references, for the words in question, and to specify, where possible, the exact Chinese etyma.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , September 1934, pp. 280 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © 1934 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, Heidelberg: Winter, 1926-7.

2 The number in parentheses which we place after each Chinese word is the number of the Chinese character in the monumental Chinese-English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1912, 2 vols., of Herbert A. Giles.

3 67.196-212. Hirth mentions some thirty possibilities, rejecting most of them. Those that concern us here are junk, kaolin, cangue, ginseng, and typhoon.

4 Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, Paris, 1932, 2 vols.

5 An important reference is T. T. Chang's Sino-portuguese Trade from 1514 to 1644, Leyden, E. J. Brill, 1934, but much of the more general information can be found in the larger encyclopedias.

6 The italics are mine.

7 Die Paulohisprache, Nijhoff, 1918.

8 Since writing the above I have received a note from Mr. Z. T. Kyi of the Bureau of Foreign Trade at Shanghai which substantiates, more or less, my etymology. This cloth is now called kiang yin (1208; 13,226) fon ki; it ‘is woven by Chinese hand looms with cotton yarn and exported to South Sea islands in large quantities for natives’ cloth.' This explains the forms caniquim and cannequin beside earlier caniquis. This cloth is woven in a district along the Yangtsze River about two hundred kilometers from Nanking by water.

9 It is quite probable that this is a discrepancy of date that can be explained. We merely call attention to the lack of agreement in the documents at our disposal. I have tried to examine MS 22431 personally, but so far have been delayed.

10 Selectarum epistolarum ex India libri quatuor, Joanne-Petro Maffeio interprete, Florence, 1588, 4.425.

11 La vie privée d'autrefois, le café, le thé, et le chocolat 129 (Paris, 1893).