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Old 07-21-2014, 12:12 PM
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Chuck Chuck is offline
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This thread is great, but I think everyone's trying too hard. Believe it or not, England was speaking French less than a thousand years ago (after William the Conker), so there's a lot more French in the English language than most people even realize. (N'oubliez pas: "Honi soit qui mal y pense.")

A few of my favorites are:
Courage
Voyage
Portage
Montage
Fromage (?!)
Eclairs
and of course
Rendezvous
which all come from the French.

Same with most of our military terms, right down to "bullets". All the ranks we use in the U.S. are derived from French: "private", "corporal", "sergeant", "lieutenant", "captain" and so on, etc. ... these are all are French in origin. (And so is "et cetera", for all practical purposes.) "Platoon", "Regiment", "Brigade"... Eventually, one gets the idea that when languages were being solidified, the French were the ones that knew how to get things done!

...Plus they were the only ones who knew how to make the fromage...
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