épouvanter

Forms

épouvanter^[1] Old French espaenter, espoenter, espoventer (about 1170) and espouventer (1273); espouvanter is found in the mid 16th century and épouvanter in the 17th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French espoenter, inherited from Vulgar Latin *expaventō, formed on expavēns, the present participle of Latin expaveō (“to fear, dread”), from intensive ex- and paveō (“to fear, be troubled”).^[5][6][7][8] The Vulgar Latin verb took the place of classical verb, which survives only here and there.^[4] The oldest texts have /a/ (espaenter), which became /o/, and a /v/ was then inserted, giving espoventer, as Old French pooir became povoir.^[3][4] The simple verb is also the source of peur and épave.^[7]

Cognate with Italian spaventare, Spanish espantar, Old Spanish aspaventar and Occitan espaventar.^[5][4][3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) uses the reflexive, “to be struck with terror”: Home nel veit qui mult ne s'espaent “no man sees him who is not greatly afraid”.^[5][3] The transitive verb “to terrify” is in the Oxford Psalter, first half of the 12th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant to strike with horror or terror.^[7] In the 17th century it widened to causing grave apprehension (Racine, 1667) and to astonishing or shocking someone (before 1613).^[7][2] In spite of its age it has kept its strong sense, though it is somewhat literary; its derivatives épouvantable “dreadful” and épouvantail “scarecrow” have weakened or moved further from it.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – S'espoant appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[5]
• first half of the 12th century – Espowenterunt in the Oxford Psalter.^[5]
• c. 1170 – The form espoventer in the Livre des Rois.^[2]
• 1273 – Adenet writes espouventer.^[2]
• before 1613 – Régnier uses it for “to astonish”.^[2][7]
• 1667 – Racine uses it for “to fill with apprehension”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To terrify, to fill with dread or horror: l'orage épouvantait les enfants.^[9][5]
2. To cause deep apprehension, to alarm: la perspective de déménager l'épouvante.^[9]
3. S'épouvanter: to be seized with terror.^[3][5]

Word family

• épouvantable
• épouvantail
• épouvante
• épouvantement

Related words

• peur
• épave
• Latin paveō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 304a
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert