---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 00:05:17 -0400 From: Wordsmith <wsmith at wordsmith.org> To: linguaphile at wordsmith.org Subject: A.Word.A.Day--sangfroid
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After a recent week of words from law, where many of the words are of French origin, I received this email from a reader:
"I propose you no longer feature words which have a base or stem from
the French language. I no longer see that as a positive e-mail."
. . .This is not the first time linguistic revisionism is being attempted. During World War I, in the US, some had tried to rename sauerkraut as "liberty cabbage", for example. But we're all so interconnected, as are our languages, that any such attempt quickly falls flat on its face.
"Freedom fries" they say? Well, there's still some French remaining, as the word fry comes from Old French frire. "Freedom toast"? What about toast which comes from Middle French toster. Thinking along these lines, we may even have to rename the US (from Old French estat). Estimates vary, but one-quarter or more of words in the English language have a French influence. In the two lines that the above-mentioned reader sent us, at least six words have French connections (propose, feature, base, language, positive, mail).
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Michael