Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·French ·1640s
Liaison
from liaison
- Meaning
- A connection, communication link, or sometimes a romantic affair.
- Source word
- liaison
- Route into English
- French *liaison* (binding, linking, from Latin *ligare*, to bind) → English via 17th-century military vocabulary → broadened to cover diplomacy, romance, and cooking (where it means a sauce-binder).
- Arrived
- 1640s
From French
Beyond the Norman conquest's Old French foundation, English kept borrowing from French for art, cuisine, fashion, and diplomacy throughout the modern period.
English borrows.
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