Etymologically
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éloigner

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /e.lwa.ɲe/[1]

Forms

éloigner[1] Old French esluiner (about 1050), esloignier, esloigner (13th century); éloigner in Crespin (1606).[2][3]

Etymology

It is from French é- + loin + -er, from the prefix “es-” (Latin ex-) and loin.[2][4][5][3][6] Wiktionary also mentions a popular Latin “*exlongāre”.[1] “Loin” is from Latin longē (“far”).[7]

Compare Old Occitan eslueingnar.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) soi esluiner is to move away, in an abstract sense, from God and the precepts of Scripture.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative “to turn (someone) away” is from the end of the 12th century, and in 1267 it meant to put off in time.[4][2] From the spatial sense came “to keep (someone) away from public life” and, before 1870, “to make seem distant”, of lenses.[4][3] The participle éloigné (early 13th century) is used of distant relatives (des parents éloignés) and remote causes, and, from 1580 être éloigné de meant to be far from doing something.[4] Littré notes that some pronounced it élogner.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Soi esluiner, Vie de saint Alexis.[2]
  • 1155 – Esluinement.[4]
  • late 12th century – To turn away.[4]
  • 1267 – To put off in time.[2]
  • 1580 – Être éloigné de.[4]
  • 1606 – The spelling éloigner.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To move away, take away: éloigner une lampe, éloigner les enfants du feu.[5][3]
  2. To distance, keep away (from a person, a plan, public life).[4][1]
  3. To turn away, divert: éloigner un soupçon.[4]
  4. To put off, postpone; to remove further in time: chaque jour nous éloigne de notre jeunesse.[2][3]
  5. S'éloigner: to move away, go away; to drift apart, s'éloigner du sujet, to digress.[1][4]

Word family

  • éloignement
  • éloigné

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 404a
  7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette