The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language

The French Revolution in English Words

When the world changes, language changes. New things need new words, and the new words of a period betray the inventions of the age. The Vietnam War gave American English bong, poontang, and credibility gap.

You can follow the history of the English-speaking world by watching the new words flow by. The forties gave us genocide, quisling, crash-landing, debrief and cold war. The fifties gave us countdown, cosmonaut, sputnik and beatnik. The sixties gave us fast food, jetlag and fab. And so on through Watergate, yuppie, Britpop and pwned.

But nothing has ever been as new as the French Revolution, which was essentially a mob of new ideas armed with pitchforks and intent on murder. Every new event, every new idea, had to be rendered for the English-speaking world in new words that were being imported from the French. Each twist, turn, beheading and storming was reported a few days later in Britain and the course of history can be seen in the words that were imported from French.

1789 aristocrat

1790 sans culottes

1792 capitalist, regime, émigré

1793 disorganised, demoralised (meaning made immoral), guillotine

1795 terrorism (meaning government by terror)

1797 tricolore

And the tricolore, as we know, would survive both as a flag and a pizza topping. Moreover, the French contribution to the English language, which had been going on for centuries, would continue for centuries more.

About 30 per cent of English words come from French, though it depends, of course, on how you’re counting. This means that, though English is basically a Germanic language, we are, at least, one third romantic.