ENGLISH WORDS IN THE FRENCH LANGUAGE.
T,ANGUAGE8 are constantly absorbing words from one another. It is their principal means of enrichment. We know the extent to which our own language is indebted to others, the words in daily use that have come to us from France or Italy or elsewhere. But we seldom think of the converse, of the extent to which English terms have been adopted, and are now being adopted, in the language of our neighbours. The subject is worth considering. It enables us, in our insularity, to realize in some degree what it is that the Continent has derived from us, what are the customs that its people have imported from Great Britain ; it enables us to appreciate a little what in their eyes is distinctively English—" to see oursels as others see us."
For the greater part of this year I have been living in Belgium, and reading and talking French all day long. I was led, by the reason that I have mentioned, to note the English words which I came across in common use. My collection soon included some scores. It points to some interesting conclusions.
Much the most striking is the British leadership in the world of sport. The sporting columns of the newspapers are full of English terms. " Sport " itself is a word in daily use. One may come across a paragraph headed " Le Boxe," and beginning : " En face du champion actuel se trouvait le coming-man du ring. Apses seize rounds le match se terminait en sa faveur par un knock-out." Or again : " Au lawn-tennis on a joue les singles. Mons. A., qui await un handicap de 15, a gagne par 3 sets is 0 centre Mons. B." In almost every game English words are as conspicuous as French words in the millinery trade in England. " Football," " golf," water-polo," " rowing," " yachting," are all terms in general use. Drag-hounds are " les drags." One finds goal," track," stayers," " jockey," " touring-club," " side-car." " Bowling-green " has been Galli- cized into " boulingrin "—I came across the word so spelt in a novel by Marcelle Tinayre. Sometimes the meaning of a word is distorted in its passage from the one language to the other. French-speaking people think that they are using a good English expression when they say " nous avons fait du footing" after they have been for a walk.
It is significant, too, that English words should be conspicuous in matters relating to self-government and the Labour movement, " Self-government " itself is a term which has found its way
into the French language. Trade-union " is also used as an
alternative to " Syndicat." A strike is a " grove," but there is no translation for " lock-out." One may read a newspaper paragraph to some such effect as this : " Un meeting a cu lieu au Skating-Rink. Les leaders des Trade-Unions ont explique au personnel lock-outd la cause du conflit." "Poll" is a word sometimes used, and a man who has been rejected for member- ship of a " club " (also found as an alternative to cercle ") has been " blackboule."
Just as in earlier centuries, when the French took the lead in the arts of war, a number of French military terms were imported into the English language, so in the nineteenth century, when the English were the pioneers of railways, they furnished their neighbours with the vocabulary that was needed. We have from them " personnel," " materiel," " morale," corps," " brigade," " battalion," " Colonel," " Commandant.," Lieu- tenant," "artillery," "reconnaissance," "manoeuvre," and many more. They have from us " rail," wagon," tunnel," " bogie," and others. We give them also tramways " and paquebot," an obvious corruption of packet-boat."
In the nomenclature of the table we have received from the French much more, of course, than we have given. It is not surprising that the only words derived from the English usually found in a French menu are " rosbif " and biftek." But " pale ale," " bitter," stout," and " whisky " arc words which have come into use with thoseeverages. Above all, one finds everywhere " five o'clock " as the term for the new custom imported front England, and rapidly spreading among the well-to-do classes. The phrase is already beginning to lose its proper significance. 1 noticed in a restaurant advertisement in a theatre programme at Brussels : " Au Madrid. Five O'clock Tea. Ouverture is 8 heur."
Another English custom which has brought its own name with it is the " week-end." So have " Les boy-scouts " (pro- nounced scoot), and the English " nurses." The word " nurse " is now good French. The tank is so called, sometimes written " Tanck." " Film " and " interview " are newly imported words. The latter is conjugated as a verb : M. Clemenceau a ete interview() par un journalist() americain." A round-jacket evening dress suit is " un smoking " ; a lady's knitted jersey is " un golf." Anglophiles sometimes speak of their tub."
Some English words are supplanting common French words because they are more handy. In an emergency it is quicker to say "Stop " than "Arretez," and the verb " stopper " is coming into use. So on the golf-links one may hear j'ai droppe une balle " instead of the clumsy " laisse tomber." " Ticket " is a word now frequently used on the railways and in the theatres, because there is confusion in employing the vernacular word " billet " both for a ticket and for a bank-note. It is now be- coming limited to the latter sense. Motor-tire advertisements always speak of " stocks," and that term is spreading. Although tin French have the word " pelouse," they sometimes employ " grasslawn " for the feature of a garden in which the superiority of the United Kingdom to the Continent is acknowledged. In country-houses which have the English furnished hall that word is used to describe it.. In Belgian towns they speak of " un square." It is a tribute to British statisticians that the term " Index-number " has been imported into the French language. There is not the same satisfaction to be found in the widespread use of the word " flirt," with its verb " flirter," and still less in that of " pickpocket." But there are two English words the general adoption of which into the language of our neighbours should make us very proud. One is " gentleman," and the
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