Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The dialect of Old French used in medieval Normandy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun a
dialect ofOld French spoken inmedieval Normandy , and inEngland following theNorman Conquest
Etymologies
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Examples
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William the Conqueror rules England and introduces Norman French words; some 900 of these survive in Modern English6.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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For speakers of Norman French, the word for “pig” was porc.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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For speakers of Norman French, the word for “pig” was porc.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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First, there was William the Conqueror, a Norman who spoke Norman French.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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First, there was William the Conqueror, a Norman who spoke Norman French.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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William the Conqueror rules England and introduces Norman French words; some 900 of these survive in Modern English6.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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Incidentally, Norman French is still used in some specific legal contexts in the UK.
The Volokh Conspiracy » The influence of French words in English legal terminology 2010
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In the middle ages the common tongue was Old English, derived from Anglo-Saxon tongues, whereas the ruling elite spoke Norman French and the clergy spoke Latin.
Primeval: S3 Ep7 – Updated Pondering « INTERSTELLAR TACTICS 2009
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Decisis and Decision are words which are both Latinate at root, but the latter comes in from Norman French while the former comes from legal Latin.
The Volokh Conspiracy » A Supreme Court Without Stare Decisis: 2009
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If we turn the question around, it seems odd that the French have so few spellings of their own for place names in the British Isles – after all, Norman French was the language of government in England for about three hundred years.
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