Eight english words that you may not have realised come from french

FROM AMBULANCE TO COUPON, WE LOOK AT THE ENGLISH WORDS THAT HAVE THEIR ORIGINS IN FRENCH Thousands of English words are thought to stem from French, largely due to the 11th-century Norman

Conquest. While some words or phrases have been directly borrowed from French - think _déjà-vu_,_ blasé_, _tête-à-tête_ - others are more subtle. 1. RSVP RSVP has kept its French origins and

stands for _Respondez-vous s’il vous plait_. 2. RESTAURANT Restaurant comes from the French word _restaurer _which means ‘to restore’ while _se restaurer_ is a reflexive verb that

translates as to 'restore yourself' by having something to eat. READ ALSO: WHY DO SOME FRENCH HOUSE NUMBERS HAVE ‘BIS’ AFTER THEM? 3. SABOTAGE There are two theories about where

sabotage came from, which are likely linked. The most simple suggestion is that it comes from the French _saboteur_, which originally meant to ‘botch’ something. However, the more

interesting theory is that sabotage comes from the _sabot_ which was a word for a wooden clog worn by Breton peasants. The word derives from the realisation during the 19th century and the

period of industrialisation that if these wooden shoes were thrown into the machinery it would stop working - a ‘sabotage’. 4. QUEUE _Queue _means tail in French. Anglophone’s meaning for

the word comes from the fact that when people stand in a line they look like a long winding tail or a ‘queue’. READ ALSO: HOW ANCIENT FRENCH DIALECTS HAVE IMPACTED TODAY’S ENGLISH 5. SPORT

Although both the French and English use ‘sport’, it was the English that borrowed from the French in the first place. It came from the old French word of desporter which was used to

describe something you took pleasure in doing. In English, this became ‘disport’ and then ‘sport’ which the French then borrowed back from English in the early 1800s. 6. DENTIST You may

never have stopped to ponder the origins of dentist. But, when you think about it, the word’s roots in French are clear. ‘_Dent_’ in French means ‘tooth’ making a ‘dentist’ someone who

treats teeth. 7. COUPON _Couper_ in French means ‘to cut’ or ‘to cut off’. Coupons literally translate as a piece that has been cut off, which explains our use of the word - a token for a

bit of the price to be cut off. 8. AMBULANCE _Ambulance_ comes from the old French term _hôpital ambulant_, which translates as ‘walking hospital’. _Ambulan__t_ can be translated as

‘walking’ or ‘mobile’ among other meanings. Originally the term _hôpital ambulant_ was used by the army to describe the moveable hospitals that could be put up and taken down as and when

required. READ ALSO 10 BRETON PHRASES TO TAKE WITH YOU TO BRITTANY 10 WORDS OR PHRASES TO INTRODUCE CANADIAN FRENCH