absolu

Forms

absolu (feminine absolue, masculine plural absolus, feminine plural absolues)^[1] Old French asolu and ausolu, replaced by absolu in the 13th century.^[2][3] Middle French also had absolut.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin absolūtus (“finished, complete, perfect”), the past participle of absolvō (“to detach, set free, finish”),^[3][2][4] which is formed from ab- and solvō (“to loosen”).^[2] The early form asolu was remade with ⟨b⟩ after the Latin in the 13th century.^[2] The Old French sense “absolved, sanctified by absolution” belongs to the past participle of absoudre, which has the same Latin source.^[3][2] Wiktionary instead treats the word as inherited through Middle French absolut.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan absolut, Catalan absolut, Spanish absoluto and Italian assoluto.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as asolue in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), in the phrase France l'asolue, meaning “perfect”, and hence also “holy”.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the 12th to the 16th century the word meant “finished, accomplished” and “perfect, holy”, as in la terre absolue “the Holy Land” in Rutebeuf.^[3][5] Beside it ran the participle sense “absolved” (1165), which gave jeudi absolu (1270), the Thursday before Easter on which absolution was given; this phrase kept the sense “holy” into the 19th century.^[3]

The sense passed from the moral to “complete, total” and “categorical”.^[2] The meaning “exercised without limit” is recorded in 1393 (puissance souveraine et absolue) and the grammatical term, as in ablatif absolut, in the 14th century.^[3] The political use grew with pouvoir absolu and roi absolu (1636), and became especially important after the French Revolution, in opposition to constitutional regimes.^[2] It entered mathematics (1691) and physics (zéro absolu, before 1845).^[2] The noun l'absolu appears in Buffon in 1758 and became common in philosophy.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Asolue “perfect” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[3][4]
• 1165 – Asolu “absolved” is used in Aliscans.^[3]
• 1225 – The adverb absolument is recorded.^[2]
• 1270 – Jeudi absolu “Maundy Thursday” is first recorded.^[3]
• 1393 – The Ménagier de Paris uses it of unlimited power.^[3]
• 1636 – Roi absolu is recorded.^[2]
• 1691 – A mathematical use, équation absolue, appears.^[2]
• 1758 – Buffon uses l'absolu as a noun.^[2]
• 1797 – Chateaubriand uses the derivative absolutisme.^[2]
• Before 1845 – Zéro absolu is recorded in physics.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Without any restriction or reserve, complete, total: une confiance absolue.^[6][5]
2. (politics) Of power or a ruler: subject to no control or limit, as in monarchie absolue.^[6][7]
3. Perfect, as perfect as can be imagined.^[6]
4. Of a person or tone: uncompromising, tolerating no contradiction.^[6][7]
5. Taken in itself and not in relation to anything else, as opposed to relatif, as in majorité absolue, valeur absolue.^[6][1]
6. (grammar) absolute: of a construction or a verb used without a governing word or object, as in ablatif absolu.^[6][5][1]

Noun

1. (philosophy) The absolute, what exists independently of any condition or relation.^[6][8]
2. Dans l'absolu: in theory, without regard to circumstances.^[6][8]
3. (alchemy) The single substance from which all bodies were thought to derive.^[6]

Word family

• absolument
• absolutisme
• absolutiste

Related words

• absoudre
• absolution
• Latin absolūtus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
4. ^ a b c 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)