Etymologically
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approcher

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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

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)