French has long served as the donor language par excellence in the history of English. French has enriched the English vocabulary throughout the centuries since before the Norman Conquest (Serjeantson, Reference Serjeantson1935: 104–5). The French impact on the English lexicon has received much attention in studies of the language and its development. However, French borrowingsFootnote ¹ which have recently been introduced into English have figured little if at all in research thus far.

The present study sets out to shed light on the French influence on English in recent times. The results presented in this paper are based on a comprehensive and up-to-date evaluation of a significant part of the foreign vocabulary in English: the body of words and meanings adopted from French in the twentieth century.Footnote ²

Technical progress in the development of new media and the electronic acquisition of linguistic documentary evidence have made possible such research, which relies on the analysis of extensive corpus data.

The Oxford English Dictionary Online provides the data for the present study. The OED is currently undergoing its first complete revision. The electronic version of the OED is searchable online at <http://www.oed.com>, encompassing the text of the Second Edition released in 1989 (henceforth OED2), the OED Additions Series, a series of supplements published in 1993 and 1997, and a range of revised and new entries which will form the planned Third Edition, or OED3. The existing text of the OED is being updated quarterly with the preliminary results of the OED3 overhaul.Footnote ³

The electronic form of the OED represents a valuable tool in drawing up a comprehensive and precise record of French borrowings which first occurred in English in the twentieth century. By using the OED Online, the various French borrowings can easily be found. The following OED search option allows the scholar to identify and collect all the words and meanings with a French etymon in their etymological descriptions: Advanced Search: Entries containing “French” in “Etymology” and “1900–” in “Date of Entry”.

The corpus data on which the present study is based was retrieved from the OED during the spring of 2011. At that time, the OED did not include any word or meaning which had been adopted from French in the twenty-first century. The sample of lexical items comprised several hundred twentieth-century borrowings from Standard French as well as some borrowings from regional and dialectal French, other national varieties of French (e.g. Canadian French, Haitian French) and French Creole. In addition, the sample contained words showing a ‘mixed’ etymology in the OED, i.e. borrowings which were partly adopted from French and partly from another language.

The OED also records possible French borrowings; that is, words and meanings which may or may not have been adopted from French. In the new edition of the OED, a systematic differentiation is made between words that are possibly, probably or perhaps borrowed from French (abbreviated as ‘poss.’, ‘prob.’ and ‘perh.’ in the corresponding OED3 etymologies).Footnote ⁴

All the different categories of borrowings identified in the OED were taken into account in this investigation. The words under consideration were classified as borrowed from French as the immediate donor. Hence, sabayon, for example, designating a variety of dessert or sauce, was categorized as an adoption of French sabayon, notwithstanding the fact that French had borrowed it from Italian zabaione.

As will be seen, the sample of lexical items collected in this way includes borrowings with no or only slight adaptation to the receiving language. Digestif, for instance, pronounced /ˌdi:ʒesˈtɪf/ (see CEPD, LPD) in present-day English, still shows foreign influence. It reflects French digestif /diʒɛstif/. The sample also encompasses borrowings which are more assimilated in spelling and pronunciation. Examples are the noun aromatherapy, which goes back to French aromathérapie, and hypermarket, translating the French hypermarché.

Areas and spheres of life influenced by French in the twentieth century

On the basis of their meanings, the twentieth-century borrowings distinguished by the OED were divided into thirteen major subject fields and their various subgroups, in order to give a tour d'horizon, i.e. an overview of the different areas and spheres of life influenced by French in the past few decades. The assignment of several technical terms was in certain cases due to the classification in the OED. However, the overall division of the borrowings into different subject areas is my own.

French has contributed new words and meanings to manifold domains in the twentieth century. The overall number of lexical items in the various subject areas totals 1677 borrowings. The following list gives an overview of the number and percentages of the borrowings (in ascending order) in the different subject fields and their subcategories. The numbers comprise French borrowings as well as borrowings from the varieties of French and from French Creole, and possible French borrowings. For each field, some illustrative examples of French borrowings are provided:

1. (1) Anthropology (11 borrowings, i.e. 0.7%), e.g. rite of passage, n. phr.Footnote ⁵ (1909); participation mystique, n. phr. (1923)

2. (2) Metapsychics and parapsychology (11 borrowings, i.e. 0,7%), e.g. metapsychics, n. (1905); parapsychical, adj. (1910); pataphysician, n. (1945)

3. (3) Archaeology (30 borrowings, i.e. 1.8%), e.g. briquetage, n. (1902); tournette, n. (1927)

4. (4) Miscellaneous (46 borrowings, i.e. 2.7%), e.g. subalternize, v. (1905); faisandé, adj. (1912); son et lumière, n. phr. (1957)

5. (5) Technology (62 borrowings, i.e. 3.7%)

   1. (5.1) Metallurgy (2 borrowings), e.g. austenite, n. (1902)

   2. (5.2) Nautics (5 borrowings), e.g. Mayday, int. (1927); mesoscaphe, n. (1955)

   3. (5.3) Photography (7 borrowings), e.g. contre-jour, n. (1921); rayograph, n. (1933)

   4. (5.4) Aeronautics (18 borrowings), e.g. fuselage, n. (1909); sesquiplane, n. (1921), now a historical term for a type of biplaneFootnote ⁶

   5. (5.5) Technology, Electronics and Telecommunication (30 borrowings), e.g. supersonic, adj. (1919); baud, n. (1932); Teletel, n. (1979)

6. (6) La Francophonie (63 borrowings, i.e. 3.8%)

   1. (6.1) The Caribbean (12 borrowings), e.g. beguine, n. (1935 borrowed from West Indian French); rara, n. (1941), a possible borrowing from Haitian French

   2. (6.2) America: Canada and Louisiana (22 borrowings), e.g. Zydeco, n. (1949), which may have been influenced by Louisiana Creole, and pure laine, adj. phr. (1991 adopted from Canadian French)

   3. (6.3) Africa (29 borrowings), e.g. mission civilisatrice, n. phr. (1927); toubab, n. (1976)

7. (7) Fashion and lifestyle (77 borrowings, i.e. 4.6%)

   1. (7.1) Cosmetics and Beauty Culture (6 borrowings), e.g. aromatherapy, n. (1949); visagiste, n. (1958)

   2. (7.2) Colours (7 borrowings), e.g. Nattier blue, adj. phr. (1912); grège, adj. (1926)

   3. (7.3) Furniture and Interior Design (11 borrowings), e.g. torchère, n. (1910); poudreuse, n. (1927)

   4. (7.4) Fashion (53 borrowings), e.g. blouson, n. (1904); haute couture, n. phr. (1908); monokini, n. (1964); bustier, n. (1979)

8. (8) Entertainment and leisure activities (86 borrowings, i.e. 5.1%)

   1. (8.1) Bullfighting (4 borrowings), e.g. razet, n. (1932); course libre, n. phr. (1959)

   2. (8.2) Theatre (6 borrowings), e.g. Grand Guignol, n. phr. (1908), pièce noire, n. phr. (1951)

   3. (8.3) Games (8 borrowings), e.g. boule, n. (1911); pétanque, n. (1955)

   4. (8.4) Travelling and Tourism (11 borrowings), e.g. laissez-passer, n. (1914); demi-pension, n. (1951)

   5. (8.5) Cinema, Film and Television (23 borrowings), e.g. film noir, n. phr. (1958); cinéma-vérité, n. (1963)

   6. (8.6) Sports (34 borrowings), e.g. rally, n. (1911); motocross, n. (1951); après-ski, n. (1954)

9. (9) Mathematics and the humanities (92 borrowings, i.e. 5.5%)

   1. (9.1) Philosophy (11 borrowings), e.g. élan vital, n. phr. (1907); pour-soi, n. (1947)

   2. (9.2) Mathematics (19 borrowings), e.g. nomogram, n. (1909); fractal, n. (1975)

   3. (9.3) Theology and Religion (20 borrowings), e.g. pratiquant, adj. (1902); Omega point, n. phr. (1959)

   4. (9.4) Language and Linguistics (42 borrowings), e.g. calque, n. (1937); franglais, n. (1964)

10. (10) People and everyday life (154 borrowings, i.e. 9.2%)

    1. (10.1) Stores (3 borrowings), e.g. Monoprix, n. (1937); hypermarket, n. (1970)

    2. (10.2) Philately and the Postal System (4 borrowings), e.g. se-tenant, adj. (1911); aerogramme, n. (1934)

    3. (10.3) Sanitary Facilities (4 borrowings), e.g. pissoir, n. (1919); vespasienne, n. (1922)

    4. (10.4) Police and Crime (5 borrowings), e.g. portrait parlé, n. phr. (1913); motard, n. (1963)

    5. (10.5) Animal Rearing, Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry (15 borrowings), e.g. transhumance, n. (1911); marcottage, n. (1926); Malinois, n. (1947)

    6. (10.6) Communication (20 borrowings), e.g. mise au point, n. phr. (1929); dialogue de sourds, n. phr. (1963)

    7. (10.7) Transport and the Traffic System (22 borrowings), e.g. limousine, n. (1902), infrastructure, n. (1927); autoroute, n. (1946)

    8. (10.8) Love and Sex (31 borrowings), e.g. amour fou, n. phr. (1902); poule de luxe, n. phr. (1937 as earliest quotation in OED3); petit mort, n. phr. (1981)

    9. (10.9) Society, Human Behaviour and Feelings (50 borrowings), e.g. mauvais coucheur, n. phr. (1915); gaminerie, n. (1917); salariat, n. (1918); sensiblerie, n. (1931)

11. (11) Civilization and politics (156 borrowings, i.e. 9.3%)

    1. (11.1) Law (6 borrowings), e.g. bâtonnier, n. (1907); acquis communautaire, n. phr. (1976)

    2. (11.2) Sociology (8 borrowings), e.g. apparented, adj. (1934); denatality, n. (1939)

    3. (11.3) Economy, Finances and Banking (12 borrowings), e.g. ophelimity, n. (1920); bancassurance, n. (1989)

    4. (11.4) War and the Military (53 borrowings), e.g. Croix de Guerre, n. phr. (1915); camouflage, n. (1917); force de frappe, n. phr. (1962)

    5. (11.5) Politics (77 borrowings), e.g. bloc, n. (1903); Gaullism, n. (1950); Popular Front, n. phr. (1936) was partly borrowed from Spanish Frente popular and French Front populaire (see OED3).

12. (12) Gastronomy (179 borrowings, i.e. 10.7%)

    1. (12.1) Restaurants and Cafés (6 borrowings), e.g. terrasse, n. (1918); bistro, n. (1922); crêperie, n. (1967)

    2. (12.2) Kitchen Utensils (8 borrowings), e.g. réchaud, n. (1906); sorbetière, n. (1965)

    3. (12.3) Drink and Tobacco (24 borrowings), e.g. Grand Marnier, n. phr. (1905); digestif, n. (1908); Gauloise, n. (1920)

    4. (12.4) Wine (49 borrowings), e.g. Chardonnay, n. (1911); demi-sec, adj. (1926); maître de chai, n. phr. (1950)

    5. (12.5) Cuisine (92 borrowings), e.g. quiche, n. (1925); crème fraîche, n. phr. (1936); amuse-gueule, n. (1963); nouvelle cuisine, n. phr. (1976)

13. (13) Fine arts and crafts (260 borrowings, i.e. 15.5%)

    1. (13.1) Jewellery and Watchmaking (5 borrowings), e.g. loupe, n. (1909); sautoir, n. (1936); grande sonnerie, n. phr. (1938)

    2. (13.2) Typography, Printing and Bookbinding (7 borrowings), e.g. gauffrage, n. (1904); pochoir, n. (1929); remboîtage, n. (1934)

    3. (13.3) Architecture (12 borrowings), e.g. poché, n. (1913); Modulor, n. (1948)

    4. (13.4) Dance (32 borrowings), e.g. tutu, n. (1910); ballet bouffe, n. phr. (1934); retiré, n. (1941)

    5. (13.5) Music (36 borrowings), e.g. tragédie lyrique, n. phr. (1901); bergerette, n. (1924); musique concrète, n. phr. (1952)

    6. (13.6) Art (75 borrowings), e.g. art nouveau, n. phr. (1908); surrealist, adj. (1918); collage, n. (1919); musée imaginaire, n. phr. (1959)

    7. (13.7) Literature (93 borrowings), e.g. absurdism, n. (1954); nouveau roman, n. phr. (1959); intertextuality, n. (1973)

14. (14) The natural sciences (450 borrowings, i.e. 26.8%)

    1. (14.1) Geography (10 borrowings), e.g. sotch, n. (1910 adopted from dialectal French); glaçon, n. (1933)

    2. (14.2) Geology (19 borrowings), e.g. nuée ardente, n. phr. (1904); biostratigraphy, n. (1928)

    3. (14.3) Physics (27 borrowings), e.g. magneton, n. (1911); stilb, n. (1940)

    4. (14.4) Biochemistry (29 borrowings), e.g. lipid, n. (1925); endorphin, n. (1976)

    5. (14.5) Chemistry (37 borrowings), e.g. unimolecular, adj. (1901); carbocation, n. (1960)

    6. (14.6) Mineralogy, Petrography and Crystallography (41 borrowings), e.g. moissanite, n. (1905); epitaxy, n. (1931)

    7. (14.7) Biology (47 borrowings), e.g. diplotene, n. (1925); probiotic, adj. (1953)

       1. (14.7.1) Mycology (2 borrowings), e.g. probasidium, n. (1916); ballistospore, n. (1949)

       2. (14.7.2) Genetics (5 borrowings), e.g. operon, n. (1960); maturase, n. (1980)

       3. (14.7.3) Ecology (5 borrowings), e.g. parabiosis, n. (1901); phytoclimate, n. (1937) may be an acquisition from either French or Danish;

       4. (14.7.4) Bacteriology (6 borrowings), e.g. Salmonella, n. (1913); bacteriocin, n. (1954)

       5. (14.7.5) Microbiology (8 borrowings), e.g. auxanography, n. (1905); virion, n. (1959)

       6. (14.7.6) Cell biology and Cytology (12 borrowings), e.g. synaptenic, adj. (1900); clasmatocyte, n. (1919)

       7. (14.7.7) Botany (16 borrowings), e.g. grenadin, n. (1904); plastidome, n. (1926)

       8. (14.7.8) Zoology (29 borrowings), e.g. bête rouge, n. phr. (1909); cryptozoology, n. (1968)

    8. (14.8) Medicine (117 borrowings), e.g. main succulente, n. phr. (1900); fluorosis, n. (1927); mesotherapy, n. (1981)

       1. (14.8.1) Histology (2 borrowings), e.g. argentaffin, adj. (1925); Masson, n. (1926)

       2. (14.8.2) Immunology (3 borrowings), e.g. Arthus, n. (1908); allotypy, n. (1962)

       3. (14.8.3) Veterinary Medicine (4 borrowings), e.g. pasteurellosis, n. (1902); mycoplasmosis, n. (1960)

       4. (14.8.4) Pharmacy and Pharmacology (12 borrowings), e.g. stovaine, n. (1904); anxiogenic, adj. (1972)

       5. (14.8.5) Psychology and Psychiatry (19 borrowings), e.g. déjà vu, n. phr. (1903); pithiatism, n. (1910)

From the above list it becomes clear that the twentieth-century French borrowings to do with anthropology, archaeology, metapsychics and parapsychology are in the minority. Some of them are specialized terms, such as the phrase participation mystique, which is used in cultural anthropology for ‘[i]maginative identification with other people and objects, regarded as an attribute of preliterate peoples’ (OED3). It can also denote ‘merging of the individual consciousness with that of a group, or with the external world’ (OED3).

Tournette, ‘[a] rotating disc resembling a potter's wheel’ (OED2), serves as an example from archaeology, and the noun pataphysician, an adherent of pataphysics, the branch of knowledge dealing with phenomena for which no scientific explanation exists, belongs to the field of metapsychics and parapsychology.

Some of the borrowings which came into English in the past few decades fall into the ‘modern’ field of technology and its related branches. Technical advancement and inventions may have led to an increase in new words in these areas, some of which were adopted into the English lexicon in the twentieth century. Examples are the French borrowings baud, a unit of speed transmission in telegraphy and computing, and Teletel, ‘[a] proprietary name for the viewdata system operated by the French government’ (1993 OED ADD Series).

During the period of colonial expansion, France extended its territory all over the world. Its influence made French a widely-spoken language of colonial administration. French was taken to North America and to various regions of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Oceania. After independence, the nations formerly under French rule maintained French to some degree. French generally represents the prestigious language in these regions, where several varieties of French have emerged.

In the twentieth century, a number of acquisitions from French and its regional varieties occurred in English. These mainly concern cultural, social, linguistic or political matters related to La Francophonie.

Recent borrowings from the varieties of French and from French Creole have been sparsely investigated in current research. They make up quite a remarkable part of the lexical items which are associated with the Caribbean, America (i.e. Canada and Louisiana) and Africa. The words rara, pure laine and Zydeco can be adduced as examples. According to OED3 rara is a possible borrowing from Haitian French which denotes a yearly street festival in Haiti or the music played on such occasions. The phrase pure laine was adopted from Canadian French, ‘relating to, or designating a French Canadian, esp[ecially] a francophone Québecois descended from the original French settlers’ (OED3). Zydeco may have been influenced by Louisiana Creole. It refers to a type of Afro-American dance music played by black Americans in the South of Louisiana. The word can also denote the dance itself. Zydeco may represent a Creole pronunciation of French les haricots in the dance-tune title Les haricots sont pas salés, literally ‘The beans are not salted’ (see OED2). One may argue that these types of word add, to some extent, to the exotic nature of English vocabulary in the twentieth century.

The French have always been noted for their fashion. So, quite naturally, a considerable number of French fashion terms have been borrowed into English throughout the centuries. French also served as a source of borrowings in this area during the 20th century. Among the words of French provenance relating to fashion and lifestyle are items associated with cosmetics and beauty culture (e.g. aromatherapy), borrowings relating to furniture and interior design such as poudreuse, a kind of dressing table, designations for fashionable colours (e.g. Nattier blue), as well as terms for clothing and styles of fashion such as blouson, bustier and haute couture.

The amount of borrowings in ‘entertainment and leisure activities’ reflects the Zeitgeist of modern society. This area is of particular interest in the present day. The field contains lexical items in ‘bullfighting’, ‘theatre’, ‘games’, ‘travelling and tourism’, ‘cinema, film and television’, ‘sports’. The borrowings course libre, Grand Guignol, pétanque, demi-pension, cinéma-vérité and rally may serve as examples. Course libre is used to designate a French variety of bullfighting and Grand Guignol represents a theatre term, relating to ‘[a] dramatic entertainment in which short pieces of sensational or horrific kind are played successively’ (OED2). The noun pétanque denotes a game resembling bowls, mainly played in the south of France. Demi-pension is one of the French-derived items from ‘travelling and tourism’. It designates hotel accommodation in France or Europe which includes bed, breakfast and one meal a day. Cinéma-vérité refers to a style of film-making, and rally, a ‘race for motorcycles, cars, etc’ belongs to the field of sports.

In addition, the area of mathematics and the humanities contains quite a few twentieth-century borrowings. It comprises borrowings in philosophy, mathematics, theology and religion, language and linguistics. Examples are the nouns pour-soi, which refers to ‘the spontaneous, free being of consciousness’, ‘being for-itself’ (OED3) in existentialist philosophy, fractal, a type of mathematical curve, and calque, a linguistic term for a loan translation. The adjective borrowing pratiquant, ‘[m]aking a practice of religious duties or observances’, ‘practising’ (OED3) can be assigned to ‘theology and religion’.

The fields of people and everyday life, civilization and politics, gastronomy, the fine arts and crafts comprise a relatively high percentage of adopted words and meanings. ‘People and everyday life’ is subdivided into nine different fields, encompassing borrowings related to stores (e.g. hypermarket), philately and the postal system (e.g. aerogramme, an ‘air letter’), sanitary facilities (e.g. pissoir), police and crime (e.g. motard, ‘[a] French motorcycle policeman’ (OED3)), animal husbandry, agriculture, horticulture and forestry (e.g. Malinois, a breed of dog, and marcottage, which denotes a method for propagating plants). It also includes borrowings in the fields of communication (e.g. mise au point, ‘[a] clarification or bringing into focus of an obscure subject, problem, etc.’ (OED3)), transport and the traffic system (e.g. limousine, infrastructure), love and sex (e.g. amour fou, relating to ‘[a]n uncontrollable passion’ or ‘an obsessive and esp[ecially] unreciprocated infatuation’ (OED3)). There are in addition a considerable number of borrowings associated with society, human behaviour and feelings, for example salariat, which is used to designate ‘[t]he salaried class’ (OED2), gaminerie, ‘[t]he behaviour or characteristics of a gamin or gamine’ (OED2) and sensiblerie, meaning ‘sentimentality’.

The majority of borrowings from the area of civilization and politics can be found in politics, war and the military. These types of word show how greatly political movements and historical events can leave their marks on a language. Examples are Gaullism, specifying the policy pursued by Charles de Gaulle, and Croix de Guerre, which refers to a French military decoration first awarded during the First World War.

France is renowned for its fine arts and crafts. Therefore, it is by no means surprising that French has served as an important source of words in these domains (the most notable ones being art and literature) in the past few decades. Borrowings in these areas include grande sonnerie, a ‘clock striking system’, pochoir, which refers to an artful technique for illustrating books, and Modulor, specifying a scale of proportions developed by the architect Le Corbusier. Further examples are ballet bouffe, ‘[a] comic ballet’ (OED3), terms for artistic styles and creations like art nouveau and collage, and nouveau roman, a type of French novel.

Obviously, French gastronomy has enjoyed great popularity for centuries. There has been quite a strong influx of French cuisine terms into English down the ages. As one might expect, French has continued to contribute borrowings to this area in the twentieth century. The group of words in the field of gastronomy includes terms for restaurants and cafés such as terrasse, ‘a flat, paved area outside a building […] where people sit to take refreshments’ (OED2), kitchen utensils such as sorbetière, a machine for making ice-cream, and several terms for beverages (e.g. Grand Marnier, a type of liqueur) and tobacco (e.g. the cigarette brand Gauloises). Furthermore, this group comprises a comparatively high number of borrowings relating to wine (e.g. Chardonnay) and quite a wide range of culinary terms, such as quiche, a variety of flan or tart, the food product crème fraîche and nouvelle cuisine, denoting a ‘modern’ style of cooking.

As is apparent, the natural sciences with their various subcategories constitute the area on which the impact of French was most intense in the twentieth century. This result indicates the significance of French science in international research. It seems noteworthy that the highest proportion of borrowings in the natural sciences can be found in medicine and biology.

One might not have expected the great majority of items adopted from French during the twentieth century to be natural science terms. A considerable number of them belong to a technical register and are not familiar to ‘ordinary’ speakers of English. It seems rather unlikely that the borrowing plastidome, for instance, a term used in botany for ‘[t]he plastids of a cell collectively’ (OED3), occurs frequently in everyday language. The same applies to main succulente, a rare, medical term in present-day English for ‘[s]welling, coldness, and lividity of the hands’ (OED3). Both terms appear to be only known to the specialist.

Thanks to the OED, it was possible to provide a rounded picture of the diverse areas enriched by French in the twentieth century. As was seen, the vocabulary recently adopted from French is characterized by its great variety, ranging from words related to everyday matters to highly specific terms in technology and science.