Right before Latin emerged as the dominant language on the Italian peninsula and beyond, Etruscan was one of the major languages in the Mediterranean. It seems to have belonged to the Tyrsenian language family and while its family members were also spoken in across the Alps and on one or more islands in the Aegean Sea, all Tyrsenian languages went extinct. Despite over 13,000 inscriptions spread across the Mediterranean, the Etruscan language is still quite poorly understood. Basically, as the Roman state gobbled up most of the Etruscan speaking land, Latin started outcompeting other languages and at some point during the 1st century BCE, the population of the region was probably completely Latinized.
It is rather common that languages that go extinct as a result of language shift imposed by other cultures become more or less forgotten. However, Etruscanโs demise at the expense of Latin has paradoxically preserved parts of the language in the form of loan words that were borrowed from Etruscan into Latin before Etruscan ceased functioning as a spoken language. During the following centuries, Latin happened to become the dominant language in Europe, first as a result of geographical extent, then as a liturgical language, as well as the language of education and science.
From the 17th to the 19th century, one of the child languages of Latin, French, then took Latinโs place and spread even further due to colonialism, which is why we use the term lingua franca for languages used for communication between people who do not share a native language. In addition, French have had a remarkable influence on English vocabulary, and English happened to, in turn, become the global language of today. Consequently, Etruscan loanwords that entered Latin more than two thousand years are still widely used today in hundreds of languages. Here are some examples:
autumn
from Middle English autumpne, from Old French automne, autonne, from Latin autumnus, probably from Etruscan ๐๐๐๐๐ atune โautumnโ
mundane
from Middle English mondeyne, from Old French mondain, from Latin mundus โworldโ, probably from Etruscan ๐๐๐ muฮธ โpit, mundusโ
palace
from Middle English paleys, from Old French palais, from Latin palatium (in reference to the Palatine Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome), which might be named after the Etruscan goddess of shepherds, flocks and livestock, Pales
person
from Middle English persone, from Old French persone, from Latin persลna โmaskโ, probably from Etruscan ๐๐๐๐๐ phersu โmaskโ
Rome
from Middle English Rome, from Old English Rลm, Rลซm, from Proto-Germanic *Rลซmล, from Classical Latin Rลma. Probably ultimately from Romulus, one of the mythological founders of the city, which might have been named after Etruscan ๐๐๐๐ ruma, from ๐๐๐ rum โteatโ
Several of these words, however, could have other etymological sources, such as Ancient Greek, but it is reasonable to assume that at least some of these words are solely of Etruscan origin.