esprit

Etymology

It is borrowed from French esprit (“spirit, mind”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Old French espirit (“spirit, soul”), recorded from the 12th century,^[3][4] from Latin spīritus (“spirit, breath”).^{[2][3][4][7][8]} The Old French word was a learned borrowing from Latin, according to Barnhart.^[4] The OED compares Occitan esperit, Spanish espíritu, Portuguese espírito and Italian spirito.^[2] English spirit and sprite are doublets of it.^[4] Etymonline explains the initial e- as a vowel that French added before an initial s followed by a consonant.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lively wit, cleverness: 1591, in Francis Sparry's translation of Christophe de Cattan's Geomancie,^[2] a work on astrology in Barnhart's description.^[4] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives 1573 for its first, now archaic sense, quick understanding or intelligence.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the word once had the wider sense "cleverness, brains" and narrowed to "sprightliness, vivacious wit in conversation or writing".^[2] Weekley says that English took it in this special sense of wit.^[9] The usual French sense survives in French phrases taken into English: esprit de corps, loyalty among the members of a group, from 1780 (in Horace Walpole's letters);^[2][3] esprit fort, a strong-minded person or freethinker, from 1750 (in Chesterfield's letters);^[2][3][9] and esprit de l'escalier, literally "spirit of the staircase", a clever retort thought of too late, from 1906 (in the Fowlers' King's English).^[2][3][6]

Timeline

• 1573 – quick understanding, intelligence (now archaic).^[7]
• 1591 – lively wit, cleverness.^[2][4]
• 1750 – esprit fort, a freethinker.^[2]
• 1780 – esprit de corps.^[2][3]
• 1906 – esprit de l'escalier.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Lively wit and spirit, especially in conversation or writing; vivacity: The cast played the farce with great esprit.^{[10][7][6][2]}
2. (archaic) Quick understanding; intelligence.^[7][2]

Related words

• bel esprit
• esprit de corps
• spirit
• sprite

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins