Kilo Lingo

Line drawing of fianĉo
Coloured illustration of fianĉo
#1994 of 5,000 Core 5000

Translation

fiancé, husband-to-be

Word origin

From French fiancé, the past participle of fiancer, 'to betroth', from Vulgar Latin fidare and ultimately fides, 'faith'. To be engaged is to have given your word, and the etymology says exactly that.

Origin
French
Root
fiancer
English cognates
fiancé, fidelity, confide, affiance

Examples

.

Her fiancé will come to the party with her family.

.

The fiancé and his fiancée invited all their friends.

, .

He was her fiancé for two years, and they married in May.

Unlike fraŭlo, which Esperanto invented by stripping a suffix off a German borrowing, came in the ordinary way: French had both fiancé and fiancée, Esperanto took the root and let -in- do the rest. So fianĉino is the fiancée, and the two words are one root apart rather than two borrowings.

The sequence is worth learning as a set, because it is four words for one story: a fraŭlo becomes a when they get engaged (i), then an edzo when they marry (edziĝi). o is the engagement itself. The -- in all of those is the same one that turns enamiĝi into falling in love: a change of state that happens to you rather than one you do to somebody else.

The accent matters in writing. It is with the hat, fiancxo in the x-system, and never bare, which would be a different word entirely.

Where this fits

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Esperanto · Free printables

fianĉo: worksheet, infographic and listicle

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This word is part of lesson 40.