anticiper

Forms

anticiper^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin anticipō (“to take beforehand, forestall”), borrowed about 1355.^[2][3][4] The Latin verb is a fairly late compound, found from Varro on, of ante (“before”) and capiō (“to take”),^[2][5] perhaps modelled on participō.^[2][6]

Cognate with Occitan anticipar and Italian anticipare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF date it to Pierre Bersuire in the 14th century,^[5][4] in the sense “to forestall someone”: in his translation of Livy the dictator les anticipa et desavança (forestalled and outran the Latins and Volsci).^[7][2] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has an Anglo-Norman record from the third quarter of the 13th century, “to act before the proper time”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From forestalling a person the verb passed in 1442 to coming before a fixed time and doing something earlier than planned, its main modern sense.^[2] Law gave anticiper un appel (1508), and in 1549 it took on the sense to imagine something in advance.^[2] The intransitive construction with sur appeared in law, meaning to encroach on rights (1671); the absolute use is older, from the 16th century, and was later specialised in music (1776) and in sport (1932), where it means to act in foresight of the opponent's move.^[2] Littré still lists anticiper sur ses revenus, to spend part of one's income in advance.^[7]

The past participle anticipé is used as an adjective from 1694; the noun anticipation was borrowed from Latin in 1380.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1355 – Pierre Bersuire uses it, meaning “to forestall”.^[4][3][2]
• 1442 – Recorded in the sense “to come before a fixed time”.^[2]
• 1508 – Anticiper un appel appears in legal usage.^[2]
• 1549 – First found in the sense “to imagine in advance”.^[2]
• 1671 – Anticiper sur “to encroach on (rights)” appears in law.^[2]
• 1694 – The participle anticipé is used as an adjective.^[2]
• 1776 – The absolute use is specialised in music.^[2]
• 1932 – It is used in sport for foreseeing the opponent's play.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To do or pay something before the appointed time.^[9][10][11]
2. (transitive) To foresee, to imagine or feel in advance.^[9][10][12]
3. (sport) To foresee the opponent's action and prepare to meet it; also used without an object.^[9][10][11]
4. (intransitive) Anticiper sur: to use or spend in advance, to encroach on: anticiper sur ses revenus.^[9][10][7]
5. (intransitive) Anticiper sur: to get ahead of a future situation, or to tell an event before its place in a story: n'anticipons pas.^[10][12][13]

Word family

• anticipé
• anticipatif
• anticipateur

Related words

• anticipation
• Latin anticipō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 654a
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
13. ^ 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