Learning French
Which French words are resisting English anglicisms in everyday language?
Language campaigners may worry about rising anglicisms, but some French words are holding firm
The word 'ordinateur' has not yet been usurped by 'computer'
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We regularly report on the creep of Anglicisms into the French language, with the fields of tech, sport and business the main culprits. Anyone fancy “un meeting”? If so, please leave “ton smartphone” at the door!
This gradual appropriation has now started to drift into mainstream entertainment. A recent episode of TF1’s Mask Singer– note the title, subtly amended from the English The Masked Singer; perhaps French people can easily say “mask” but not “masked” – saw one of the panellists holler “No way!” at some revelation or other.
This use of English seems a little ridiculous – it is as if the regular French versions of “no way”, such as “c’est pas vrai !” (“it can’t be so”) or “J’y crois pas!” (“I don’t believe it”), are not hip enough.
However, the grandees of the Académie française – the linguistic chiefs regularly rattled by this incessant veer away from proper French towards English usage – should not be in total despair.
For there are certain French words defying this terminology takeover, as reported by Le Figaro in a recent chest-beating article entitled “La revanche du français sur l’anglais” (“the revenge of French over English”).
It proudly listed five French words that have not (yet...) succumbed to their anglicised counterparts: ordinateur (computer), seul-en-scène (one-man show), logiciel (software), mondialisation (globalisation) and abonné (subscriber).
Ordinateur has held firm since 1955, when IBM launched its first computer in France. The Latin word ordinator, meaning “one who brings order” or “one who organises”, was chosen.
