Tennis Is Indeed a French Word

Are you exhausted by the constant invasion of "Franglais" in our professional lives? 🤯

Does hearing "On fait un call pour challenger le process?" make your inner Molière weep?

Well, prepare for a plot twist that might just break the Académie française.

The eminent linguist Bernard Cerquiglini has dropped a truth bomb in his latest work: A vast number of the "Anglicisms" we currently battle are actually Old French words returning home after a several-century vacation across the Channel.

They aren't invaders; they are prodigal sons.

The classic example? Tennis.

Before it was a global sport, it was the Old French imperative "Tenez!" (Take it! / Hold!), shouted by French nobles as they served the ball in jeu de paume. The English borrowed it, polished it, and sold it back to us.

It is the ultimate linguistic irony: we are often fighting to "protect" French from... itself.

We’ve created a little GIF below to illustrate this linguistic boomerang effect.

Furthermore, we highly recommend watching this brilliant explanation by Professor Cerquiglini based on his book, "L'anglais est-il du français mal prononcé ?" (Is English just badly pronounced French?).

It’s a fascinating reminder that language is fluid, and that perhaps we should embrace these returning words with a "Bienvenue chez vous" rather than suspicion.

👇 Watch the fascinating explanation by RobWords here: [Link to YouTube Video]

What’s your favorite "fake" Anglicism? Share it in the comments!

#Linguistics #FrenchLanguage #Franglais #BernardCerquiglini #Culture #Irony #HistoryOfLanguage #Tennis