5 LEGAL TERMS WHICH ARE ACTUALLY FRENCH

Written By : M. Rizky Chievo Halomoan and Edzy Trileandra

Contexte historique AKA Historical background

Did you know that English people used to speak French? For 300 years since the conquest of Normandy back in 1066, England was ruled by the Normans, who spoke French. Because the aristocrats and nobles can only speak French. French have a massive impact on English vocabularies, around 26% of English vocabularies, such as commence (commencer), rendezvous (rendezvous), robe (robe), etc. In addition, the French influences do not only affect the day-to-day words, but also legal terms.

1. à jour-ning the time

Adjourn generally means to postpone something. But, in a legal sense, adjournment is used to postpone court proceedings to another time, and it is different from recess, which means taking a break during a trial. This word came from the French phrase à jorn

2. What Does Jurée Actually Mean?

Jury, which refers to  a collective body of people empowered to find facts, act and render a verdict in a trial, actually has a French origin. The word jury comes from the old French word of Jurée, which means oath, judicial inquiry, or inquest. 

3. Crime and Punishment

Who knew that word crime, the word which people use in various media, is actually French? The word crime is adopted from the Old French Crime which, interestingly, means crime.

4. The Pénal Colony

Have you ever read Franz Kafka’s short story titled The Penal Colony? If so, you are probably aware of the word penal. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, Penal means relating to, or involving punishment, penalties, or punitive institutions; liable to punishment; or used as a place of confinement and punishment. This legal term actually comes from the Old French word Pénal, which means the same as Penal.

5. The Trial in The Cort

Court, the place where justice takes place and juries assemble, is actually French. It is derived from the Old French word Cort, which later evolved into the French word Cour, which not only means an open space near a building, but also refers to a sovereign’s residence, council, and jurisdiction.

SOURCE

• S S Alderman, The French Language in English and American Law (1950)

• Legal Information Institute, ‘Adjourn’ (Cornell Law School) https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/adjourn accessed January 15th, 2026

• Merriam-Webster, ‘Court’ (Merriam-Webster.com 2026) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/court accessed January 15th, 2026

• Merriam-Webster, ‘Penal’ (Merriam-Webster.com 2026) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/penal accessed January 15th, 2026

• C T Onions, The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (Oxford University Press 1966)