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assentir

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Etymology and origin of the French word assentir

French has two verbs spelled assentir: one borrowed from Latin, meaning “to assent”, and a hunting term formed on sentir, which the Grand Robert, Littré and the TLFi enter separately.[1][2][3]

assentir1 to assent

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1155
Borrowed from
Latin assentio
Ultimate origin
Latin assentiō

Pronunciation

  • /a.sɑ̃.tiʁ/[4]

Forms

assentir[4]

Etymology

The verb “to assent” is borrowed from Latin assentiō (“to approve, agree”), a verb found as early as Plautus.[3][1] Littré analyses the Latin verb as ad and sentiō (“to feel, think”).[2] Wiktionary instead treats it as inherited, through asentir.[4] The FEW files it under the same Latin verb.[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from 1174, in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket: a ço s'asentent tuit “all agree to that”, a reflexive use meaning “to come to an agreement, to consent”.[3][8] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1155.[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb was used intransitively, reflexively (“to agree, to submit”) and transitively (“to bring someone to agree, to reconcile”).[8] The construction assentir à “to acquiesce in, consent to” is found in 1209 in the Miserere of the Recluse of Molliens, where it stands beside consentir, and it is still recorded by Cotgrave in 1611.[3][9] Middle French also used it with a direct object, “to approve something”.[6]

From the Académie's dictionary of 1798 it was treated as little used: a learned word found mainly in law (assentir à un acte) and in philosophy (assentir à une vérité démontrée).[3] Littré marks it as dated.[2] In English it gave assent, first recorded about 1300.[10]

Timeline

  • 1155 – First record in Anglo-Norman.[7]
  • 1174 – Reflexive use in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.[3]
  • 1209 – Assentir à “to consent to” in the Recluse of Molliens.[3]
  • c. 1341 – Machaut uses it transitively, “to approve”.[6]
  • 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it “to assent, agree, accord unto”.[9]
  • 1798 – The Académie calls it learned and of little use.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (archaic, formal) To give one's assent to something, used with à: il finit par assentir à cette proposition.[3][2][4]

assentir2 to pick up the scent

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1100s late 12th century, Aliscans
Ultimate origin
Latin sentiō
Etymology tree of assentir2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin sentiō
Aromanian sãmtu
Catalan sentir
French sentir
French assentir
Italian sentire
Romanian simți
Spanish sentir
From the same root · assentir2
Latin cōnsentiō ← sentiō
Latin dissentiō ← sentiō
Latin praesentiō ← sentiō
Latin sēnsibilis ← sentiō
Latin sēnsilis ← sentiō
Latin sēnsim ← sentiō
Latin sensitīvus ← sentiō
Latin sēnsus ← sentiō
Latin sententia ← sentiō
Latin sentīmentum ← sentiō
Romanian sentiment ← sentiō
French pressentir ← sentir
French ressentir ← sentir
French sentiment ← sentir
Italian sentimento ← sentire
Romanian simț ← simți
Spanish sentimiento ← sentir

Pronunciation

  • /a.sɑ̃.tiʁ/[4]

Forms

assentir[4]

Etymology

The hunting verb is formed from French a- + sentir, from the simple verb in the sense “to perceive a smell”.[3][1][11][2][12] The TLFi suspects that Old French had two such compounds: one of the simple verb, meaning “to perceive by the senses or the mind”, and another that was crossed with assener “to head for, to strike”, through the nouns sens1 and sen, and that gave the sense “to touch, to reach”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the late 12th century Aliscans uses it for “to touch, to reach”: Par maintes fois ont paiens asentis, of the pagans being struck many times in Spain.[3][11] In the same period Garin le Loherain has the transitive hunting sense “to smell, to scent”, of hounds that have truly caught the scent of the boar.[3]

Semantic evolution

About 1200 Aye d'Avignon uses it for “to feel, to experience” (a blow), a sense found only in the 13th century.[3] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has “to perceive, to hear” from about 1230.[7] The intransitive hunting sense “to recognise the track” appears in the 14th century, in the Livre du roi Modus, of hounds that pick up the scent in the stag's droppings.[3][1] The DMF records the transitive “to smell, to sniff out” in Middle French hunting texts.[6] Nineteenth-century dictionaries keep it as a hunting term, as in Larousse's assentir du cerf, du chevreuil.[3]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – “To touch, to reach” in Aliscans; the hunting sense “to scent” in Garin le Loherain.[3]
  • c. 1200 – “To feel, experience” in Aye d'Avignon.[3]
  • c. 1230 – “To perceive, hear” in Anglo-Norman.[7]
  • 14th century – The intransitive hunting use in the Livre du roi Modus.[3]
  • 1611 – Cotgrave also gives “to take the wind, or scent, of”.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (hunting) Of a hound: to recognise the track of an animal by its scent: le limier assentit du sanglier.[3][11]

Word family

  • assentement

Usage notes

The hunting noun assentement is the scent that strikes the hound's nose and brings it back onto the track; it was also called assentiment.[3] Bescherelle (1845) still entered the old form assenter and put both senses under one headword.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 521a
  6. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
  7. ^ a b c d e Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  8. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:582
  9. ^ a b c Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  12. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 470a

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Assentir.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/assentir. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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