F. (François) Génin

Born in Amiens on February 16, 1803, and dying in Paris on May 20, 1856, François Génin was a French journalist and specialist in Romance language studies. He taught at lycées in Laon and Strasbourg, and later became a professor in the Faculty of Letters at Strasbourg.

With help from his friend Émile Littré, he also worked for Le National, where he became known as a strongly anticlerical journalist. After the revolution of 1848, he served for a time as a department head in the French ministry of education.

Génin is remembered for philological works that explored the history and vitality of French, including studies of language change, the vocabulary of Molière, and an introduction to The Song of Roland. He argued that French should be understood through its older and popular roots, and he helped draw serious attention to medieval French at a time when that period was often neglected.