appréhensif

Forms

appréhensif (feminine appréhensive, masculine plural appréhensifs, feminine plural appréhensives)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin apprehensivus, according to the GLLF and Hatzfeld.^[2][3] The Grand Robert derives it within French from appréhension,^[4] and Wiktionary and the Wiktionnaire from appréhender with the suffix -if.^[1][5] The FEW files it under apprehensio.^[6][7]

Cognate with Old Occitan aprehensiu and Spanish aprehensivo.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1372 in Jean Corbichon, meaning “that perceives” or “that conceives”;^[2] the DHLF glosses this first sense as “intelligent”.^[9] In Middle French a puissance apprehensive was the faculty by which the mind grasps things.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century it meant quick to understand, and Cotgrave in 1611 still glossed it “wittie, of a quick conceit, or nimble vnderstanding”.^[10][11] It also took the concrete sense of seizing, matching appréhension: Paré divides the motor faculty into a walking one and an apprehensive one, “that seizes”.^[9][8][3]

From the mid-16th century it meant timid, given to fear (the DHLF dates this to 1556), as in La Noue's men made so apprehensifs that words alone frightened them.^[9][2][8] The Académie gave only this sense from 1694, called it little used in 1835,^[12][13] and Hatzfeld notes that it was dropped from the dictionary in 1762 and restored in 1878.^[3] The DHLF counts “fearful” as the only surviving sense, in learned use;^[9] the TLFi instead calls it a rare archaism and treats as current the sense “that grasps”, used of a movement of the body, as in Claudel in 1907.^[14]

Timeline

• 1372 – Jean Corbichon uses it for “that perceives, that conceives”.^[2][9]
• 1556 – First record of the sense “fearful”, according to the DHLF.^[9]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it “quick-witted”.^[11]
• 1694 – The Académie defines it as “fearful, prone to apprehension”.^[12]
• 1762 – The word is left out of the Académie's dictionary.^[3]
• 1835 – The Académie calls it little used.^[13]
• 1907 – Claudel uses it for movements that grasp an object.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary, rare) Fearful, inclined to appréhension: Ma tante est d'un naturel appréhensif.^[5][15][2]
2. (didactic) That seizes or grasps an object, of a movement of the body.^[14]
3. (philosophy) That grasps something by the mind.^[3][14]

Word family

• appréhensivité

Related words

• appréhender
• appréhension
• appréhensible
• Late Latin apprehensivus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e Hatzfeld, Adolphe; Darmesteter, Arsène; Thomas, Antoine (1890–1900), Dictionnaire général de la langue française du commencement du XVIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Paris: Delagrave
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 51b
7. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Huguet, Edmond (1925–1967), Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle, 7 vols., Paris: Champion / Didier
11. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
12. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
13. ^ a b Académie française (1835), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 6th ed., Paris: Firmin-Didot
14. ^ a b c d 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
15. ^ Académie française (1932–1935), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 8th ed., Paris: Hachette