Etymologically
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époque

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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]
  • 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)