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"Lingua Franca" refers to an earlier period in history when French was the common language used across Europe, among the nobility in particular. You can read it as "common language for international communication" to understand why it's used to qualify the "globish" variant of English nowadays.

Admittedly, using a latin expression literally describing French to mean English may be slightly confusing...

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No, that's a misconception. It doesn't refer to French. It's about the language of the Franks.

Thanks for the correction, I was indeed wrong (parts of my comments were based on true facts but parts were clearly wrong, which is harmful). Honest mistake, I'm glad you spotted it so that I avoid propagating it in the future.

To be dishonestly picky, French is somehow etymologically the "language of the Franks"... However, from what I just read, while "lingua franca" designates a vehicular language (which is the main thing to remember about the expression), it was originally used to refer to a simplified mix of languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French among others).

Thanks again, I guess I made long ago a lazy intellectual shortcut conflating my somehow credible explanation with the actual origin of the expression.

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