activité

Forms

activité f (countable and uncountable, plural activités)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin āctīvitās (“power of acting”), a term of scholastic Latin.^[2][3][4][5] The scholastic word, found in Albertus Magnus, is a derivative of Latin āctīvus (“active”),^[2][4] which belongs to the family of agō (“to drive, to do”).^[6] The TLFi notes that the grammarians' use of the Latin word for the active form of the verb, recorded in Probus, did not pass into French.^[2] By surface analysis it is actif with the suffix -ité.^[1]

Cognate with Occitan activitat, Spanish actividad and Italian attività.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1425 in Olivier de La Haye's poem on the plague of 1348, meaning the “power of acting” of a quality or influence.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The first, abstract sense “power of acting” (1425) became dated from the 18th century.^[2] In the 15th century Chastellain already used it for the exercise of that power, and for quickness and diligence in a person.^[2] Cotgrave glossed it in 1611 as “activity, quickness, nimbleness, readiness”,^[9] and the Académie in 1694 recorded both the active faculty (sphere d'activité) and the figurative sense of diligence and promptness at work.^[10]

Later it came to name a person's regular occupations, often in the plural,^[8] and the actions of a person, a firm or a country in a given field.^[11] The sciences took it up for the state of a volcano and for the rate of radioactive decay.^[12]

Timeline

• 1425 – First record, in Olivier de La Haye, for the “power of acting”.^[2][3]
• 15th century – Chastellain uses it for the exercise of this power and for diligence.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave translates it “activity, quickness, nimbleness”.^[9]
• 1694 – The Académie records sphere d'activité.^[10]
• 1737 – The compound inactivité is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) The power of an agent to act or produce an effect;^[12] volcan en activité, an active volcano.^[12]
2. Liveliness, energy, eagerness to act: une femme pleine d'activité.^[11][8]
3. The actions of a person, firm or country in a given field, or a person's occupation: activités professionnelles.^[11][1]
4. Something done for leisure, education or other purposes: des activités sportives pour les enfants.^[1]
5. (physics) Activité radioactive: the number of decays per unit of time in a radioactive element.^[12]

Word family

• inactivité
• radioactivité

Related words

• actif
• action
• activer
• Latin āctīvus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 115b
6. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
10. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert