abbé

Forms

abbé m (plural abbés, feminine abbesse)^[1] Old French nominative abes, oblique abé; also abeit, abbet.^[2][3] The spelling with ⟨bb⟩ appears in the 13th century, and abé was still recorded by Richelet in 1680.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin abbātem, the accusative form.^[2][4][5][6] The Old French nominative abes kept the Latin nominative's stress on the first syllable, while the oblique abé, the form that survived, comes from the accusative, stressed on the second.^[3][4] Wiktionary instead treats the word as inherited through Old French.^[1][1]

The Latin word was first abba, frequent until the 9th century, taken from Ancient Greek ἀββᾶ (abbâ, “father”), a Church Greek word of the New Testament used in addressing God, which is in turn from Aramaic אבא (ʾabbā, “father”).^[2][4][7] Cognate with Italian abbate, Spanish abad, Portuguese abade, Catalan abat and Occitan abat.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has asez i ad evesques et abéz “there are many bishops and abbots there”: the head of an abbey.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the superior of a monastery of men, the sense it has kept since Saint Benedict.^[7][2] From 1587 it was also the leader of the young men who organized a village's feasts, and in Swiss French (from 1685) the president of a shooting society, called an abbaye.^[7] From the 15th to the 18th centuries it gave many phrases about a well-fed, imposing figure, such as Rabelais's table d'abbé (1556).^[7]

When abbeys came to be granted in commendam to secular clergy who drew their income without ruling them (sense recorded 1666), the abbé became a well-off churchman, and phrases like abbé de cour (1701) appeared.^[7][4] In the 19th century it became a neutral title for any secular priest, addressed as monsieur l'abbé.^[7][4] In African French it names a Catholic priest.^[7]

Timeline

• 1100 – Abéz in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 13th century – The spelling abbé.^[2]
• 1587 – Leader of a village's young men's feasts.^[7]
• 1666 – Of a secular priest holding an abbey's income.^[7]
• 1685 – President of a Swiss shooting society.^[7]
• 1701 – Abbé de cour.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An abbot, the superior of a monastery of men raised to an abbaye: abbé régulier, abbé commendataire.^[8][2]
2. (history) In the Middle Ages, the head of a confraternity of young men.^[8][7]
3. A title given to a secular priest: monsieur l'abbé.^[8][9]
4. (history) Under the Ancien Régime, a man wearing clerical dress without religious duties, often holding an abbey's income.^[9][1]

Related words

• abbatial
• abbatiale
• abbaye
• abbesse
• Latin abbās

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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 15a
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse