évêque

Forms

évêque m or f by sense (plural évêques, feminine évêchesse)^[1] Old French ebisque and evesque (10th century), also vesque; the spelling évêque dates from the 17th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French evesque, inherited from Vulgar Latin *episcus, a shortened form of Late Latin episcopus (“overseer, head of a Christian community, bishop”).^[5][2][6] The Latin word was borrowed from Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος (epískopos, “guardian, overseer”), which in church use meant “bishop”.^[5][1][7] Rey derives the Greek word from a verb meaning “to inspect”, formed with ἐπί (epí, “on”) and σκοπέω (skopéō, “to look at, examine”), of the same Indo-European root as écueil and sceptique.^[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg explain the unusual development by both the form and the importance of the word: French continues the shortened form, while the other Romance languages continue the full one.^[8] Littré takes the variant vesque from Provençal.^[4]

Cognate with Italian vescovo, Spanish obispo, Portuguese bispo, Catalan bisbe, Old Occitan bisbe and Romanian episcop.^[8][9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the second half of the 10th century, in the Vie de saint Léger, as evesque, meaning the head of a diocese in the Catholic Church.^[5][3] Rey also cites the form ebisque from the 10th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the Catholic bishop the word was extended to the bishops of the Reformed Church, a use recorded in Bossuet in 1669.^[5][2] The place of the clergy in daily life until the 19th century shows in many proverbs and phrases, now gone out of use: vouloir en remontrer à son évêque “to lecture someone who knows better”, devenir évêque des champs “to be hanged” (a hanged man “blessing with his feet”), and devenir d'évêque meunier “to fall to a much lower station” (about 1560).^[2] A 16th-century satire already plays on evesque de ville and evesque des champs.^[4]

Other phrases rest on likeness of shape or colour: bonnet d'évêque, the parson's nose of a fowl, pierre d'évêque “amethyst” (recorded by Littré in 1865) and violet d'évêque (1844).^[2][3]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – Evesque appears in the Vie de saint Léger.^[5]
• 11th century – The Chanson de Roland has evesques et abés.^[4]
• c. 1560 – Devenir d'évêque meunier “to come down in the world” is recorded.^[2]
• 17th century – The modern spelling évêque appears.^[3]
• 1669 – Bossuet uses it of a bishop of the Reformed Church.^[5][2]
• 1844 – Violet d'évêque is recorded as a colour name.^[2]
• 1865 – Littré records pierre d'évêque “amethyst”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bishop: in the Catholic Church, a prelate of the highest order of the priesthood, in charge of a diocèse.^[9][5][1]
2. A bishop of a Protestant or Orthodox church.^[5][2]
3. Bonnet d'évêque: the rump of a cooked fowl, the parson's nose.^[2][3]

Word family

• évêché

Related words

• archevêque
• épiscopal
• épiscopat
• Latin episcopus

Usage notes

Évêque in partibus (short for in partibus infidelium) was a bishop whose see lay in non-Christian lands, without an actual diocese.^[4]

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
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, 231b
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert