fornir

Forms

fornir (first-person singular present forno, first-person singular preterite forní, past participle fornido)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan fornir (“to supply, provide”), rather than French fournir, according to Corominas.^[2] The Academy gives both as possible sources.^[3][4] In Old Catalan the etymological form fromir (“to fulfil, carry out”) appears beside the later one with ⟨n⟩, for example in Llull.^[2][5] The change to formir is a common one, and this form became fornir by dissimilation of the two labials, perhaps helped by the verbs for “to garnish” or “to finish”.^[2] Occitan also had both formir and fornir, while French has had the form with ⟨n⟩ since the 12th century.^[2]

The Catalan verb is Germanic, probably from Frankish *frumjan (“to carry out, be of use”), the source of German frommen (“to be of use”).^[2][5][6] It is derived from Germanic *frumaz (“first, foremost”).^[2][7][8] Gamillscheg derived the forms with ⟨n⟩ from a different Frankish verb, *fronjan, and Meyer-Lübke and Rohlfs accepted it;^[9] Corominas rejects this, because the order of the forms in Catalan and Occitan shows that they are one word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is an Aragonese inventory of 1375, where the arms kept in the king's houses are to be used to equip (fornir) the Aljafería palace; another Aragonese record is of 1492.^[2] The Old Spanish Textual Archive has it in 1376 in the works of the Aragonese Juan Fernández de Heredia, among them the Crónica de los conqueridores.^[9] In Castilian texts it does not appear until the Caída de príncipes, a work begun by López de Ayala at the end of the 14th century and continued in 1422.^[2] Its sense there is “to provide, furnish”: the new captain is to be furnished with men (Mandola fornir de gente).^[10]

Semantic evolution

By the Golden Age the verb was already archaic in Castilian.^[2] It lived on in the thieves' cant (germanía) with the sense “to strengthen, reinforce”, recorded by Juan Hidalgo in 1609.^[2][11] Autoridades gave both the general sense “to provide with what is needed” and the cant sense, and the Academy marked the first obsolete from 1817 on.^[10][12] From 1884 the Academy defined it by fornecer, the related verb with the inchoative suffix.^[13] What survived in general use is the participle fornido “robust, well built”, properly “well provided with flesh and strength”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1375 – an Aragonese inventory, Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1376 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Crónica de los conqueridores.^[9]
• 1422 – the continuation of the Caída de príncipes brings it into Castilian texts.^[2]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records the cant sense “to strengthen, reinforce”.^[11][2]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades gives the senses “to provide” and, in germanía, “to strengthen”.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy marks the sense “to provide” as obsolete.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy defines it by fornecer.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete) To furnish, provide with what is needed for some purpose.^[3][1]
2. (germanía) To strengthen or reinforce.^[3][11][14]

Word family

• fornido
• fornecer

Related words

• Catalan fornir
• French fournir

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 933
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. fornir
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fornir
5. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 4, 134
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fournir
7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 116
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. fornir
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 781
11. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 177
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 423
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 505
14. ^ Salillas, Rafael (1896), El delincuente español: el lenguaje, Madrid: Victoriano Suárez, p. 291