approcher

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.pʁɔ.ʃe/^[1]

Forms

approcher^[1] Old French aproecier, aprochier and approchier (12th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French aprochier, inherited from Late Latin appropiō (“to draw near”), a verb of Church writers formed on Latin prope (“near”); the Latin /pj/ gave ⟨ch⟩, as in proche and prochain.^{[2][4][3][1][5]} The Grand Robert also sees the influence of “proche”.^[3] Littré notes that Old French also had “aproismer”, from “approximare”.^[6]

Cognate with Romanian apropia, Catalan apropar and Old Occitan apropchar.^[7][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has En cest païs nous sont tant aproeciez (“they have come so close to us in this land”).^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

It was first built with à for “to move towards”, later with de (14th century) and vers (16th century); used intransitively in the 12th century it meant “to come near someone”, and transitively about 1180 “to go up to, go to see”.^[2] The time sense, of an event drawing near, dates from about 1130: La morz m'aproce (“death is drawing near me”), in Roncevaux.^[2][6] The general transitive sense “to bring nearer” dates from the 15th century.^[2]

Approcher de “to rival, resemble” and approcher de quelqu'un “to have access to someone” are recorded in 1538, and Bossuet has approcher des sacrements for taking communion.^[2] The derived approche is first a military term (about 1450), and lunette d'approche “telescope” dates from 1530, English approach gave it, in the mid-20th century, the criticized sense “way of tackling a subject”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Aproecier in the Chanson de Roland.^[6]
• c. 1130 – Of time, “to draw near”.^[2]
• c. 1180 – Approcher quelqu'un “to go up to someone”.^[2]
• c. 1450 – The noun approche, in war.^[2]
• 15th century – “To bring nearer”.^[2]
• 1538 – Approcher de “to resemble”; the adjective approchant.^[2]
• 1691 – S'approcher du vent, at sea.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bring near, move closer: approcher une chaise de la table.^[9][10]
2. To come near, approach (someone): ne m'approchez pas !.^[9][10]
3. To have access to (an important person).^[9][2]
4. To draw near (in time): l'hiver approche.^[2][11]
5. Approcher de: to be close to (a place, an age, an amount); to come near to, resemble.^[2][6]
6. S'approcher (de): to come closer (to).^[2][9]

Word family

• approchable
• approche
• rapprocher
• rapprochement
• approchant
• approché

Related words

• proche
• prochain
• Latin prope

References

1. ^ a b c 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 q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 53a
6. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)