you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sure, but many of those words for specialised doctors came to English through French, not directly from Latin or Greek. And I don't think that you can reasonably argue that English words with French origins aren't by now a native part of the language. We use many of the same names in Dutch too, coming from French loanwords.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    Wasn't English's French influence mostly over by this point? The Norman conquest added a bunch of French vocabulary but by the 1700's, England was a stable colonial power.

    And for very frequently used terms - like anatomical terms - the English root remained mostly intact and loanwords weren't used. Arm, nose, shoulder, knee, elbow etc. are not French in origin.

    I suspect it could be remnant of nobility separating itself from the common people. By only ever referring to anything with its Latin term, you can distinguish the wealthy, highly-educated from the poorer, lesser-educated people. After all, if you spoke Latin and/or Greek those terms make a lot of intuitive sense.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment