It is always fascinating to leaf through the dictionary and discover the origin of the words that make up the French language. Their story is fascinating and, in some cases, frankly amazing.
Did you know, for example, that "meat" meant first "any food" and more generally, "food on which man eats". As we read in Le Trésor de la langue française, this term comes from the late Latin vivanda , alteration de vivenda , "that which is useful for life". Similarly, a "soup" meant "a slice of bread sprinkled with hot broth or sometimes milk, wine". Finally, a "reader" was a "small paper cutter that you can attach to the page on which you stopped reading", specifies the CNRTL.
Will you go to the end of this test on the origin of words? Le Figaro invites you to discover it.