Etymologically
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avenir

Etymology and origin of the French word avenir

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1427 (advenir)
Ultimate origin
Latin (veniō)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /av.niʁ/[1]

Forms

avenir m (plural avenirs)[1] Advenir (1427), avenir from 1647.[2]

Etymology

It is the noun use of the phrase “temps advenir” “future time” (1295), later “temps à venir”, that is à and venir.[2][3][4][5][1] Rey distinguishes it from an older noun “avenir” “success” (Froissart), from the verb “avenir” “to succeed”, which goes back to Latin adveniō (“to arrive”) and was later Latinised as advenir.[2][6] Littré took the noun for the infinitive of that verb used as a noun.[7] “Venir” is from veniō.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Advenir is first found as a noun in 1427, the time not yet come, opposed to the past and the present; the source phrase temps advenir is recorded in 1295.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

À l'advenir (end of the 16th century), now à l'avenir (1636), means “from now on”.[2] In Corneille (1662) it meant posterity.[2] From the mid-18th century, as in Rousseau's Confessions, un avenir or l'avenir de qqn is the future situation of a person or a project, for which one had said bonne or mauvaise aventure.[2] Future success is from the beginning of the 19th century (Académie, 1835), as in avoir de l'avenir and sans avenir.[2] After 1980 it increasingly competes with futur.[2]

Timeline

  • 1295 – Temps advenir.[2]
  • 1427 – Advenir, the future.[2]
  • 1636 – À l'avenir.[2]
  • 1647 – The spelling avenir.[2]
  • 1662 – Posterity, Corneille.[2]
  • 1835 – Avoir de l'avenir, Académie.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The future: dans un proche avenir, penser à l'avenir.[8][5]
  2. The future events; one's future situation: l'avenir de nos enfants, un brillant avenir.[5][4]
  3. Future success: un métier d'avenir, avoir de l'avenir, sans avenir.[2][8]
  4. Posterity, future generations: l'avenir le jugera.[4][5]
  5. À l'avenir: from now on, in future.[2][8]

Usage notes

In old legal usage an avenir (1680, à venir) was a summons by which one solicitor called the other party's solicitor to appear in court.[8][6] The verb avenir “to happen” is now written advenir.[2][7]

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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Cite this entry

“Avenir.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/avenir. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·