penchant

The story

1. Latin · derived frompendere“to hang”
2. Old French · derived frompengier“to tilt, be out of line”
3. French · borrowed frompenchant
4. English todaypenchant

Unadapted borrowing from French penchant, present participle of pencher (“to tilt, to lean”), from Middle French, from Old French pengier (“to tilt, be out of line”), from Vulgar Latin *pendicāre, a derivative of Latin pendere (“to hang”).

Words from the same roots