anarchie

Forms

anarchie f (plural anarchies)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin anarchia, the word the medieval Latin translations of Aristotle used for Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía, “lack of a leader, state of a people without a chief”).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek noun is formed with the privative prefix ἀν- (an-) and ἀρχή (arkhḗ, “command, rule”).^[3][6][7] The TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg stress that the word is Greek and came through the Latin translations;^[2][4][3] Rey calls it a borrowing from the Latin form.^[2][4][3]

The odd sense of Oresme's first record goes back to the Latin commentators: Albertus Magnus explained the Latin word as a rule that goes round in a circle, reading the privative prefix as the Greek preposition meaning “around”, so the word came to mean a regime in which slaves take turns at ruling.^[2] It is related to monarque and to the words in -archie.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Oresme's translation of Aristotle's Politics (1372–1374) explains anarchie as the state in which some serfs are freed and put into high offices, an exercise of power in which the weak and the strong alternate; the record stands alone.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

After Oresme the word is not found again until the 16th century, when it spread with the general sense of political disorder for want of authority (about 1562, Bonivard);^[3] the Grand Robert dates its revival to the early 17th century.^[6] Cotgrave in 1611 glosses it as a commonwealth without a head or governor, a confused state in which one man is as good as another, and also licence and dissoluteness.^[8][2] The Académie in 1694 defined it as a disordered state without a head or any government.^[9]

From political disorder the word passed to confusion and disorder of any kind (1742).^[3][10] During the Revolution it began to name a political doctrine based on doing away with the power of the State, a sense that grew in the 19th century with Proudhon (1840);^[3][11] at the end of that century the idea was bound up with, and set against, socialism and trade unionism, as the compound anarchosyndicalisme shows.^[3]

Timeline

• 1372–1374 – Oresme uses anarchie in his translation of Aristotle's Politics.^[2][3]
• c. 1562 – Bonivard uses it in the general sense “political disorder for want of authority”.^[3]
• 1594 – The derivative anarchique appears in the Satire Ménippée.^[4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it with the sense of disorder in a state without government.^[2][8]
• 1694 – The first edition of the Académie's dictionary includes it.^[9]
• 1742 – It is used of confusion and disorder in general.^[3]
• 1791 – anarchiste appears, a word of the Revolution.^[4][3]
• 1834 – anarchisme is recorded for the doctrine.^[3]
• 1840 – Proudhon uses anarchie for the doctrine of a society without State power.^[3][11]
• 1901 – The popular clipping anar is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (politics) disorder resulting from the absence or weakness of authority in a country: Le pays a sombré dans l'anarchie.^[11][2]
2. (by extension) confusion caused by the lack of rules or clear orders: C'est l'anarchie dans ce bureau.^[11][1]
3. Anarchism, the political doctrine that the individual should be freed from all government.^[11][5]

Word family

• anarchique
• anarchiste
• anarchisme
• anar
• anarchosyndicalisme

Related words

• monarchie
• Ancient Greek ἀναρχία (anarkhía)
• English anarchy

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
9. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert