The History & Backstory to Triplets and Doublets

English has many words that come from other languages and, often two or three- for the same
thing. These triplets and doublets allow us to express ideas with different degrees of formality. For
example “help” is English root, “aid” comes from French, “assist” is Latin. Over centuries, English
has been constructed with words from other lands and peoples. It started out as essentially a kind of
German. Importantly, when the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes (and also Frisians) brought Germanic
speech to English, the island was already inhabited by people who spoke Celtic languages – today
represented by Welsh and Irish, and Breton across the Channel in France. In the 9th century invaders
were speaking another Germanic offshoot, Old Norse. Instead of imposing their language, they
married local women and switched to English. However, since they were adults, who don’t pick up
new languages easily (no schools and no media, and an oral society), they spoke “bad” Old
English. Their children heard as much of the modified English as “Old English” and the language
changed accordingly. After the Norse came the French. The Normans – descended from the
Vikings—conquered England and ruled for several centuries. That meant English picked up 10,000
new words.
Starting in the 16th century, educated Anglophones (or people who speak English in a country with
more than one language) began to develop English as a vehicle for complex and sophisticated
writing. At that time, it became popular to pick words from Latin to lend the language more
prestige, to make it more high class, so to speak. At this time English acquired such words as
crucified, fundamental, definition, and conclusion. And from this time, English had thousands of
new words competing with native English words for the same things. As mentioned in the
beginning of this article, one result was triplets which allowed us to express ideas with different
degrees of formality. “Help” is English, “aid” is French, “assist” is Latin.
In like manner, “kingly” is English, “royal” is French, “regal” is Latin. At the same time, doublets
appeared. “Begin” is English, “commence” is French.
“Want” is English, “desire” is French. This double vocabulary is especially common for
culinary/food vocabulary.
For example, we kill a “cow” or a “pig” (English). From that we cook “beef” or “pork” (French).
Why? The answer lies in the division of labor in Norman English. That is, English-speaking
laborers did the slaughtering or killing for the wealthier French speakers.
Thus, the different ways of referring to meat depended on one’s place in the society or broad
community. These distinctions come to us in the English vocabulary today.
DOUBLETS AND TRIPLETS IN LEGAL ENGLISH
There is a curious historical tendency in legal English to string together two or three words to
convey what is usually a single legal concept. Examples of this include null and void, fit and proper,
perform and discharge, dispute, controversy or claim, and promise, agree and covenant. These are
often called ‘doublets’ or ‘triplets’. These should be treated with caution, since sometimes the
words used mean, for practical purposes, exactly the same thing (null and void); and sometimes
they do not quite do so (dispute, controversy or claim). Modern practice is to avoid such
constructions where possible and use single word equivalents instead. For example, the phrase give,
devise and bequeath could be replaced by the single word give without serious loss of meaning.
However, the pace of change in legal usage is slow, and as a result it is still quite common to see
certain typical doublets and triplets in certain legal documents.

Their Origin
The story begins in 1066, when William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England at the
Battle of Hastings. Following the invasion, William put French nobility in charge of the English.
This created a bilingual environment where French was the language of the elite, and English the
language of the working-class. Over the course of the occupation, English absorbed about 10,000

French words and evolved from “Old English” into “Middle English”.

Medieval writers and lawyers felt they had to use words from both languages in order to ensure
documents would be understood and respected by all. For example:

Medieval lawyers
Old English/ Germanic: Norman-French:
would write:

Breaking and
Breaking Entering
entering

Goods Chattels Goods and chattels

Lands Tenements Lands and tenements

Give Grant Give and grant

Keep Maintain Keep and maintain

Frequently used doublets became an ingrained feature of Middle English, and eventually the
habit of doubling became the fashion so that we also see French words paired together, and
English words paired together:
All-French Legal Doublets All-English Legal Doublets
Aid and abet Have and hold
Cease and desist Each and every
Terms and conditions By and with