give examples of very common English vocables
that are of French origin, which frequency is also
very high in the Whistler – more than 50 uses of
the same word in the text – accept, arrive, to
close, involve, serious, sure, prove, view,
apartment, to move, question, describe, concern,
touch, possible, continue, cover, require,
divorce, marriage, reason, cancel, decide, sign,
air, change, conversation, to assess, reply, to
increase etc.
If we try to break down the most commonly
found French loan words that can be found in the
Whistler into semantic groups according the area
of knowledge where they are used, we will notice
three large categories, to which some of them can
refer. These are terms related to finance – cost,
transaction, luxury, to count, an account, wallet,
purse, wallet, purse, salary, expense, amount,
receipt, coin, assets, check, those ones related to
law and politics - crime , plot , suspect , evidence
, judge , prison, arrest, officer, suspicion,
interrogate, charge, jail, confine, indictment,
refuge, damage, conspiracy, complaint, court,
declare and at last the vocabulary concerning
health and medicine – hospital, drug, desease,
infection, aid, pill, treatment, fatigue.
Our next step is to take a closer look at the
correlation between signifier and signified.
According to the data from Online etymology
dictionary (Harper, 2001), we can see a number
of terms that were adopted by English without
any changes in the signified. These are for
example question (the first mention refers to
XIVc.) from Old French question ’question,
problem’, matter (XIIIc.) from Old French
matere ‘subject, theme’, aid (XVc.) from Old
French aide ‘aid, help’, expert (XIVc.) from Old
French expert, espert ‘experienced, skilled’,
opinion (XIVc.) from Old French opinion ‘view,
judgement’, story (XIIIc.) from Old French
estorie ‘story, history’, to push (XIVc.) from Old
French poulser ‘push’, testimony (XVc.) from
Old North French testimonie ‘evidence, proof’,
money (XIIIc.) from Old French manoie ‘money,
coin’, to marry (XIVc.) from Old French marier
‘to get married’, to return (XIV c.) from Old
French retorner ‘turn back, return’, indictment
(XIVc.) from Old French enditement
‘accusation”, margin (XIVc.) from Old French
margin ‘edge, border’, authority (XIIIc.) from
Old French autorite ‘right, permission’, to enjoy
(XIVc.) from Old French en+joir ‘to give joy’,
afraid (XIV c.) from Old French affrai, effrei,
esfrei meaning "disturbance, fright", bargain
(XIV) from Old French bargaine ‘business,
trade’, choice (XIVc.) from Old French chois
‘one’s choice’, mayor (XIII c.) from Old
French maire ‘head of a city or town
government’, cause (XIII c.) from Old
French cause ‘cause, reason; lawsuit, case in
law’, cost (XIII c.) from Old French cost ‘cost,
outlay, expenditure’, transaction (XV c.) from
Old French transaccion ‘exchange, transaction’,
peer (XIVc.) Old French per ‘equal’, city
(XIIIc.) from Old French cite ‘town, city’,
residence (XIc.) from Old French residence
‘residing’, government (XIVc.) from Old
French governement ‘control, direction’ etc.
The others kept their signified with minor
changes, such as the adjective patient (XIVc.)
from Old French pacient ‘bearing, suffering’,
sure (XIIIc.) from Old French seur, sur ‘safe,
secure’, inquiry (XIVc.) from Old French
enquerre ‘ask’, familiar (XIVc.) from Old
French famelier ‘related, friendly’, declare
(XIVc.) from Old French declarer ‘explain,
elucidate’, to grant (XIIIc.) from Old French
granter ‘assure, promise, guarantee’, favor
(XIVc.) from Old French favor ‘approuval’,
modest (XVIc.) from French modeste ‘moderate,
gentle’, disease (XIVc.) from Old French desaise
‘lack, trouble’, to rehearse (XIVc.) from Old
French rehercier ‘to repeat’, jail (XIVc.) from
Old French jaiole ‘a cage’ etc.
And at last, in much smaller number of cases we
have observed significant shifts in meanings:
drug (XIVc.) from Old French droge ‘supply,
stock’, humor (XIVc.) from Old French humour
‘liquid, dampness’, to sign (XIIIc.) from Old
French signier ‘to make a sign to someone’ (in
these two cases we can state the expansion of the
meaning of words, taking into account that the
original meanings of ‘liquid’ and ‘making a sign’
also remain), hospital (XIIIc.) from Old French
hospital, ospital ‘hostel, shelter’, to surprise
(XIVc.) from Old French sorprendere ‘overtake,
invade’, to suit (XIV c.) from Old French
suite, sieute ‘the action to follow someone’, size
(XIV s.) from Old French sise ‘sitting’ (past
participle from asseoir – to sit down), delay (XIV
s.) from Middle French delaie ‘down+leave”,
stuff (XIVc.) from Old French estoffe ‘furniture,
material’, impression (XIVc.) from Middle
French impression ‘mark, stamp’, doubt (XIIIc.)
from Old French doter ‘be afraid of’, store
(XIVc.) from Old French estore ‘fleet, army’,
purchase (XIV s.) from Middle French
porchacier ‘look for, crave for’, average (XV s.)
from French avarie ‘damage to ship’, to depend
(XVc.) from Middle French dependre ‘to hang’,
asset (XVIc.) from Old French assez ‘enough’, a
check (XIVc.) from Old French eschec ‘the game
of chess’, to arrest (XIVc.) from Old French
arester ‘to stop’, to confine (to imprison) (XVIc.)