apparaître

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.pa.ʁɛtʁ/^[1]

Forms

apparaître^[1] Old French apareistre, aparoistre, apparaître prevailed in the 17th century.^[2][3] The 1990 spelling reform allows apparaitre.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French aparoistre, inherited from Late Latin appārēscō (“to appear suddenly”), an inchoative of appāreō (“to appear”), itself from pāreō (“to appear, be visible”) (see paraître).^{[5][2][6][7][8]} “Appārēscere” is recorded only in the 3rd–4th centuries, mostly in Church Latin; the French verb was formed on the model of “paraître”.^[2] The simple Latin “appāreō” gave Old French “apareir”, apparoir, kept in the legal “il appert”.^[2][6]

Compare Old Occitan aparer, Catalan aparexer and Spanish aparecer.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it means to become visible, to come to light: Mout grant domage lui est apareüt.^[3][9][2]

Semantic evolution

It was frequent in religious contexts, of Christ appearing to the three Marys, but early meant simply to become visible.^[2][9] The sense “to appear suddenly”, matching the noun apparition, seems to date from the 16th century (Amyot).^[2] An old legal sense (1294) was taken over by comparaître, and a transitive “to show” existed only in Old French.^[2] The psychological use with an adjective, cela apparaît certain, is in Calvin (1536), and the impersonal il apparaît que from 1437, both humanist re-borrowings from Latin appārēre.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Apareüt, Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• c. 1190 – Apparition.^[2]
• 1294 – A legal sense, later taken by comparaître.^[2]
• 1437 – Il apparaît que.^[2]
• 1536 – “To seem”, Calvin.^[2]
• 17th century – Apparaître replaces aparoistre.^[2]
• 1867 – Réapparaître.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To appear, come into view, become visible: une voile apparut à l'horizon.^[10][9][1]
2. Of a supernatural being, to appear: la Vierge lui est apparue.^[10][3]
3. To come into being, emerge: cette espèce est apparue il y a….^[10]
4. To become clear, evident; to seem: cela m'apparaît nécessaire, il apparaît que.^[3][1][2]

Word family

• réapparaître

Related words

• paraître
• apparoir
• apparition
• apparence
• apparent
• Latin appāreō

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 l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 25a
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert