PROGRESSIVE FRENCH READER II. SECOND YEAR CONTAINING FICTION IN PROSE AND VERSE HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE EXTRACTS BY G. EUGÈNE-FASNACHT SENIOR MASTER OF MODERN LANGUAGES, HARPUR TRUST MODERN SCHOOL INTRODUCTION. In order to understand the etymologies given in the Notes, it is indispensable to have some acquaintance with the laws by which Latin has passed into French, and with this view the following brief summary of the chief of those laws has been compiled. I. When in the course of our readings we meet with such words as rançon, p. 53, l. 35; entier, p. 60, 1. 24; naïf, p. 62, 1. 2; frêle, p. 95, 1. 27; hôtel, p. 120, l. 32; foison, p. 152, 1. 11, etc., and turn to our vocabulary for their origin, we shall find that— rançon is derived from the Latin redemptionem1 But, acquainted as we also are with the French words rédemption, intègre, natif, fragile, hôpital, fusion, the Latin origin of which is unmistakable, the question naturally arises how we are to account for the fact that the Latin 1 For the reason why the Accusative is given and why the Nom.inative form redemptio could not possibly have given us rançon, see III. |