accréditer

Forms

accréditer^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish acreditar, first used reflexively for winning someone's trust, then transitively for giving someone credit.^[2][3][4][1] The Spanish verb is formed on crédito, from Latin crēditum, like French crédit.^[2][3] The TLFi notes that the earliest French record supports this, since it comes from the papers of Cardinal Granvelle, a minister of Charles V and Philip II.^[2]

Littré, the GLLF and the Petit Robert instead derive it within French from à and the noun for credit, and Bloch and Wartburg list it among the derivatives of that noun.^[5][6][7][8] The Spanish negative desacreditar likewise gave the short-lived désaccréditer (1553), soon replaced by discréditer.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1553 in the Papiers de Granvelle, as acrediter, meaning to put a person in credit or good repute.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, giving someone credit or trust, has gone out of use; from it came the sense of giving an envoy the authority to act, developed in international law, as in accréditer un ambassadeur with credentials.^[3][7] In 1689 it was also said of making a shop well known.^[2] From 1671 it means making something believable or giving it currency, as in accréditer un bruit.^[2][3][5] In banking it means opening a credit for someone at a bank, a less common use that gave accréditif and accréditeur (1846).^[6][3]

English accredit (1610s) was taken from the French word.^[9]

Timeline

• 1553 – Acrediter appears in the Papiers de Granvelle.^[2][6]
• 1671 – Pomey records the sense “give currency to (something)”.^[2][3]
• 1689 – It is used for making a shop well known.^[2]
• 1846 – The derivative accréditeur is recorded.^[3]
• 1853 – Accréditation appears.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (dated) To put someone in credit, make them trusted.^[7][2]
2. To accredit an envoy, give them official standing with a foreign government, accréditer une ambassadrice auprès du pape; also, to accredit a journalist.^[2][7][1]
3. Être accrédité auprès d'une banque: to have a credit opened at a bank.^[7][6]
4. To make something believable or give it currency, accréditer une rumeur.^[7][5][10]
5. S'accréditer: to spread, gain acceptance, la nouvelle s'accrédite peu à peu.^[7][5]

Word family

• accréditation
• accréditeur
• accréditif

Related words

• crédit
• discréditer
• Spanish acreditar
• English accredit

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)