English
Mont Blanc
Mont Blanc comes from French mont Blanc.
- Frenchc. 1600–presentmont Blancliterally ‘white mountain’
- Englishearliest quotation 2022Mont Blanc
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Frenchc. 1600–presentmont Blancliterally ‘white mountain’
- Englishearliest quotation 2022Mont Blanc
Earliest quotation: 2022, Aleksandra Crapanzano, Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes: “... chestnut purée is often minimally altered. A Mont…”
A compound of mont ‘mount’ + blanc ‘white’
Proto-Indo-European *men- ‘to stand out, to tower’
Proto-Indo-European *móntis
Proto-Italic *monts
Latin mōns ‘mountain, mount’
Old French mont
French mont ‘mount’
Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- ‘to shine’
Proto-Germanic *blankaz ‘bright, shining, blinding, white’
Frankish *blank
Early Medieval Latin blancus
Old French blanc ‘white’
Middle French blanc ‘white’
French blanc ‘white’
The story
Borrowed from French mont Blanc (literally “white mountain”), from mont (‘mount’) + blanc (‘white’). The dessert is named from its resemblance to the mountain.
Every English word from French mont Blanc
Today it means
name The highest mountain in Europe, in the Alps between France and Italy.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / French mont Blanc / Mont Blanc