In this article I propose a diachronic approach regarding a group of discursive markers based on enda (anenda, manenda, par manda, etc.), which were used during a short period of time (from the end of the 15th century to the middle of the 17th century) and have disappeared in Modern French. This survey traces the formation and diachronic development of this group of markers and focuses on their function and semantic values in relation to the context of utterance and the sociological data concerning the speakers. Finally, this article draws attention to the fact that 'bad data', such as written texts (dialogues and drama), prove to be very useful when studying discourse markers, and that this kind of inquiry helps to cast new light on the semantics of some ambiguous or obscure elements of early modern French language.