yvanspijk, 
French 'poison' and 'potion' are doublets: they both stem from Latin 'pōtiōnem' (drink).
'Poison' was inherited from spoken Latin. It underwent the sound changes that turned Latin into French.
'Potion' was borrowed from written Latin in the second millennium.
The infographic below shows fifteen French doublets.
In the next two weeks, I'll be doing similar charts for Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan as well. 🙂
Add comment