émoi

Forms

émoi m (plural émois)^[1] Old French esmai, from the late 13th century also esmoi, which prevailed only in the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French esmoy, inherited from Old French esmai, a deverbal noun from Old French esmaier (“to trouble, frighten”).^[2][4][1][5] The verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *exmagō (“to deprive of strength”), made with privative ex- on a Germanic verb seen in Old High German magan (“to have strength, be able”), also in Gothic;^[2][3][4][1] Bloch and Wartburg reconstruct Proto-West Germanic *magan (“to be able”), and Wiktionary gives Proto-Germanic *maganą.^[2][3][4][1] The same Germanic verb gave German mögen and English may.^[3][4] The ending ⟨-ai⟩ became ⟨-oi⟩ under the influence of the preceding labial ⟨m⟩.^[2] Littré took esmoi for the Picard form and the form with ⟨ai⟩ for the direct one.^[6]

Meyer-Lübke instead linked the Vulgar Latin verb to Latin magus (“sorcerer”), as if it meant “to put someone out of himself by a spell”, and Guiraud took up this view, which accounts for the variants amaier and emmayer and for Spanish amagar (“to threaten”).^[4][7]

Related Romance words are Italian smagare (“to discourage”), Portuguese esmagar (“to crush”) and Old Occitan esmagar, esmaiar (“to trouble, be troubled”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old French esmai is first found in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's chronicle of the dukes of Normandy, about 1175, for the agitation caused by fear or worry.^[2] The GLLF has it about 1130, in the Roman d'Eneas.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French the word meant alarm and dismay, often in en grant esmai “in great distress”, as in Froissart's en grand tribulation et en grand esmay.^[6] Much used in the 16th century, it fell out of use in the classical period and was called an old word at the start of the 18th century, while the verb esmoyer lived on only in dialects.^[4][3]

The Romantics and the Symbolists revived it, and the Académie recorded in 1835 a new sense, a pleasant stir of feeling or of the senses, as in doux émoi.^[2][4][3] This sense owes something to émouvoir, with which speakers now link the word.^[2][3] It remains literary.^[4][9]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – Esmai appears in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's chronicle.^[2]
• late 13th century – The form esmoi is found in a manuscript of Rutebeuf.^[2]
• 16th century – Esmoi prevails over esmai.^[3]
• early 18th century – The word is described as old and out of use.^[4]
• 1835 – The Académie records the sense “pleasant emotional stir” and doux émoi.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) agitation, commotion in a person, an animal or a crowd;^[9][2][8] en émoi, in a state of alarm: tout le quartier était en émoi.^[9][2][8]
2. (literary) An inner stir of emotion, from apprehension or from sensual or aesthetic feeling: elle lui répondit non sans émoi.^[9][2]

Related words

• émouvoir
• émotion

Usage notes

Littré has a separate émoi, a technical word for the stout wooden floor set on the beam of a cider press.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/2, 93a
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, 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
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert