âgé

Forms

âgé (feminine âgée, masculine plural âgés, feminine plural âgées)^[1] Old and Middle French aagié, aagé, spelled so until the 17th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from French âge, in its older forms eage, aage.^[4][5][2][3] For its first sense, “of age”, the Trésor sees the past participle of eagier (“to declare of age”), a 14th-century legal verb formed on the same noun.^[4] Bloch and Wartburg explain that sense by the meaning “majority” that the noun often had in the Middle Ages.^[5]

The noun is derived from aé, from Latin aetās (“age”), or comes from a popular Latin *aetāticum.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Beaumanoir's Coutumes de Beauvaisis (1283) uses aagiez for an heir who has come of age, which a boy does at fifteen and a girl at twelve.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From the legal sense of being of age, it came to mean “having existed for a certain time”, said of a wood in 1314, and of a weaned animal in 1324.^[4][2] Oresme (1370) uses it of a person who has reached a fair age, the modern sense, which has become a common euphemism for vieux, especially in personnes âgées.^[4][2][5] The sense “of full age” was still recorded by the Académie's supplement in 1842.^[4]

Timeline

• 1283 – Beaumanoir uses aagiez for an heir who has come of age.^[4]
• 1314 – It is said of a wood of a certain age.^[4]
• 1324 – Aagié is said of a weaned animal.^[2]
• 1370 – Oresme uses it of an elderly person.^[4]
• 17th century – The spelling âgé replaces aagé.^[2][3]
• 1842 – The Académie's supplement still records the sense “of full age”.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Old, elderly;^[7][8][1] les personnes âgées, the elderly.^[7][8][1]
2. Of a given age: une fillette âgée de six ans, le plus âgé des deux frères.^[7][8]

Related words

• âge
• Latin aetās

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse