Career
He is best known for his work with Adolphe Hatzfeld and Arsène Darmesteter, on the Dictionnaire général de la langue française du commencement du XVIIe siècle à nos jours, which appeared in editions from 1864. He supplied etymological notes. He took up an appointment at the Sorbonne in 1889, occupying the chair of Romance philology there for 44 years.