aumône

Forms

aumône f (plural aumônes)^[1] Old French almosne (10th century) and aumosne (1175).^[2][3] Dialect forms include Picard amone and Burgundian armône.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French almosne, inherited from Vulgar Latin *alemosina, from Ecclesiastical Latin elemosyna (“charitable gift”), which is from Ancient Greek ἐλεημοσύνη (eleēmosúnē, “compassion, alms”).^{[5][3][6][1][7]} The initial /e/ was opened to /a/ before the following /l/ at the end of a syllable.^[5][3]

In classical Greek the word meant “compassion”;^[3][6] Christian Greek gave it the sense “generous gift to the poor”.^[3][6] It is derived from ἐλεήμων (eleḗmōn, “compassionate”), from ἐλεέω (eleéō, “to have pity”).^[4][1] Rey traces the adjective to the Greek word for “pity”, which has no known etymology.^[3]

Cognate with Italian limosina, Occitan almosna, Catalan almoyna, Spanish limosna and Portuguese esmola.^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Valenciennes Fragment (first half of the 10th century), in the words Faites vost almosnes “give your alms”, meaning a charitable gift to the poor.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning of the word has not changed, though it gained a figurative sense (a favour granted grudgingly, “the alms of a glance”) and lost much of its vitality as social attitudes changed.^[3][9] Its decline shows even more in its derivatives: aumôner “to give alms” (1133) and the adjective aumônier “giving alms” (1155) have aged or vanished.^[3] Chrétien de Troyes already used it of any act of charity (1172–1175), and Littré notes that it came to mean a good deed in general.^[5][4]

In the old law it also named a fine paid to charitable institutions, and under the Ancien Régime a gift of land or rent made by a lord to the Church.^[5][10] The decline is not felt among French-speaking Muslims, in France, the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa, for whom almsgiving is one of the five pillars of Islam; in Africa the word has also come to mean the small gifts made to those attending a ceremony for a dead person.^[3]

Timeline

• 900–950 – Almosne appears in the Valenciennes Fragment.^[5][3]
• c. 1050 – The Vie de saint Alexis has almosne.^[9]
• 1133 – The verb eumoner “to give alms” is recorded.^[3]
• 1172–1175 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it of an act of charity.^[5]
• 1174 – Aumosnier “almoner”, taken from Christian Latin, appears.^[3]
• 1175 – The spelling aumosne is found.^[2]
• 1176 – Aumosniere, a purse for alms, is recorded.^[3]
• 1606 – Nicot records aumônier in the sense “chaplain”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Alms, a charitable gift of money or goods to the poor: demander l'aumône, vivre d'aumônes.^[11][10][5]
2. (figurative) A favour granted out of pity or condescension: faire à quelqu'un l'aumône d'un regard.^[10][11][9]
3. (old law) A fine paid to charitable institutions.^[5][10][4]
4. (history) A gift of land or rent made by a lord to the Church.^[5]
5. (Islam) Aumône légale: the obligatory almsgiving, the zakat.^[5][3]

Word family

• aumônier
• aumônière

Related words

• Latin elemosyna

Usage notes

The second o is pronounced open or closed by different speakers, and the first sometimes open by harmony with it.^[5] Under the old feudal law, land held en franche aumône owed no charges to the lord.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 211b
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert