époque

Pronunciation

• IPA: /e.pɔk/^[1]

Forms

époque (plural époques)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐποχή (epokhḗ, “stop, pause; period, era”), in astronomy the apparent halt of a star at its apogee.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Greek noun comes from ἐπέχω (epékhō, “to hold back, check”), formed from ἐπί (epí, “on, upon”) and ἔχω (ékhō, “to hold, have”).^[3][4][7] Bossuet explained the word as meaning “to stop”, a fixed point in time.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Davity's epoche ou aere, “epoch or era”; the TLFi and Rey date it to 1637, the Grand Robert and the GLLF to 1619, and Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert to 1634.^{[2][3][4][8][5][9]}

Semantic evolution

In Bossuet's Histoire universelle (1678–80) it is both a fixed point from which a chronology starts and a period marked by an important event.^[2][3] The first sense survives only in faire époque (Rousseau, 1762), as in Voltaire's remark on Corneille making Condé weep.^[3][5][8] In logic it meant the suspension of judgement, and in astronomy (1808) the mean position of a planet at a given instant.^[3][4]

From the late 18th century it named any period in the life of a person or a society, an artistic period (l'époque classique, 1829) and a division of geological time, after Buffon's Époques de la nature (1778).^[3][8] Les époques was a familiar euphemism for menstruation (1835).^[3] La Belle Époque names the first years of the 20th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1619–37 – Epoche, Davity.^[4][2]
• 1678–80 – A starting point; a historical period, Bossuet.^[2]
• 1762 – Faire époque, Rousseau.^[8]
• 1778 – Buffon's Époques de la nature.^[3]
• 1808 – In astronomy, Lagrange.^[8]
• 1829 – An artistic period, Sainte-Beuve.^[8]
• 1835 – Les époques, menstruation.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A period of history: l'époque des croisades, la Belle Époque.^[10][3]
2. A time, a period in someone's life or in the year: à cette époque, à l'époque, at the time, une drôle d'époque.^[10][1]
3. A period of art or style: l'époque classique, meuble d'époque, a genuine period piece.^[3][1]
4. Faire époque: to mark an era, be memorable.^[9][8]
5. (geology) An epoch, a division of a period, (astronomy) an epoch.^[3][8]

Related words

• Ancient Greek ἐποχή (epokhḗ)
• English epoch

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 232b
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)