Note 592 — Chapter VI

The long presence of the reiters in France during the civil wars introduced many German words into the French language, for example bière (Bier); blocus (Blockhaus); boulevard (Bollwerk); bourgmestre (Burgmeister); canapsa (Knapsack); carousser (Garaus machen); castine (Kalkstein); halte (halt); trinquer (trinken) and of course reitre (Reiter) and lansquenet (Lanzknecht). See Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française, I, 51. Rabelais abounds with such words, e. g., “Je ne suis de cas importuns lifrelofres qui, par force, poultraige et violence, contraignent les lans et compaignons trinquer, voire carous et alluz qui pis est.” Rabelais, Book IV, prologue. So also in Book IV, prol.: “Je n’y ay entendu que le hault allemant.”