Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world by storm but didn't?

Re:Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world... by baud147258 on Friday November 17, 2017 @09:21AM (#15722148)

As a French, I've always enjoyed finding words in English coming from French, but I've never though about latin words coming from the roman occupation. Thank you for sharing!

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Re:Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world... by pbhjpbhj on Friday November 17, 2017 @10:15AM (#15722573)

Words like ffenestr and ysgol from Cymraeg show the adoption of Latin that you'd recognise in French (fenetre, ecole). Suggesting these words were already around in Old English from Latin.

It can be hard to tell the history though, eg sovereign came from French (rein) but got Latinised (regnare) in spelling reform.

One interesting thing for me was finding English loanwords in Cymraeg (former Welsh language) that are no longer used in English. I'll bet there are some French loanwords in English that aren't in French any more?

There are words adopted twice too, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Fre... has lots of examples. Giving us chief and chef in English with different meanings but based on a single French word (I gather) adopted at different times.

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Re:Ask HN: What tech were you convinced would take the world... by baud147258 on Friday November 17, 2017 @11:18AM (#15723276)

> I'll bet there are some French loanwords in English that aren't in French any more?

I don't know any and I don't think I'll be able to spot them since they aren't in French anymore.

But (from your link), there are words coming from Old French in English which then went back in French, but usually keeping the English pronunciation.

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