Gallicisms

words and expressions in Russian that have come from French, both in the form of direct borrowings and derivational, semantic, or syntactic caiques.

The period from the 17th century to the first half of the 18th century was characterized by direct borrowings, especially for the names of household furnishings, attire, foods, and so on, such as liustra (“luster” or “chandelier”), korsazh (“corsage” or “bodice”), plombir (“ice cream”), ekipazh (“carriage” or “crew”), rezon (“reason”), kompliment(“compliment”), and reputatsiia (“reputation”). In the latter part of the 18th century the number of direct loans diminished, but some degree of convergence may be seen between the semantic systems of the Russian literary language and the Western European languages, particularly French. This process was associated with the literary activities of V. K. Trediakovskii, A. P. Sumarokov, and N. M. Karamzin. After literary standards were established for the Russian language in the early 19th century, some gallicisms fell into disuse, and subsequent new borrowings from French have been few in number.