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avoir

Etymology and origin of the French word avoir

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
881, Sequence of Saint Eulalia
Inherited from
Latin habeo via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (habeō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin habeo
French avoir
Latin posthabeo
Latin antehabeo
Latin perhibeo
Latin habilis
Latin debeo
French devoir
Latin prohibeo
Latin diribeo

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /a.vwaʁ/[1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [a.waɾ][1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [a.vwaɾ][1]

Forms

avoir[1] Old French aveir, avoir, aver.[1][2] The medieval future was arai (beside avrai, averai); aurai replaced it in the 16th century.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French avoir, inherited from Latin habeō (“to have, hold, possess”).[5][6][7][1] The Latin verb meant at first “to hold, occupy” and “to dwell”, like its derivative habitō (whence habiter), and already served as an auxiliary in Cato.[4] Its clear relatives are only in the other Italic languages (Oscan, Umbrian) and Celtic (Irish gaibim (“I take”)); Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Italic *habēō, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gʰh₁bʰ- (“to grab, take”).[4][1] It is not related to English have and Old High German habēn, which belong to the family of capiō (“to seize”), though these Germanic verbs may have reinforced it.[4][1]

The future “aurai”, which replaced “arai” during the 16th century, is not well explained (“orai” is already found in 13th-century Picard), and “arai” is still common in northern dialects.[3] Cognate with Italian avere, Occitan aver, Spanish haber, Portuguese haver and Romanian avea.[8][1] English aver was borrowed through Old French.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is one of the earliest recorded French words: the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 880) has the pluperfect avret “she had” (Bel avret corps “she had a beautiful body”), a direct survival of Latin habuerat.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

Before 1100 the verb mostly meant “to possess (a quality)”, “to feel (an emotion or sensation)”, as in avoir mal, “to obtain” and “to own (goods)”.[4] It was an auxiliary from the 10th century, and was used with à and an infinitive and in the impersonal il y a “there is”;[4] Old French said simply il a, and the adverb y appears in the phrase in the 13th century.[8] Avoir à + infinitive has expressed obligation since the 11th century.[4]

An old sense “to possess sexually” (about 1150) led to “to get the better of, to trick”, recorded by Furetière (je l'aurai).[4] Uses with an attribute (avoir vil “to consider vile”, 1080) and “to know” (13th century) died out before the 17th century.[4] Belgian French says avoir facile, difficile “to find it easy, hard” and avoir le temps long “to be bored”.[4]

The infinitive became a noun about 1040, “property, wealth”; the bookkeeping sense, the credit side of an account opposed to doit, dates from 1680.[4][7]

Timeline

  • c. 880 – The pluperfect avret appears in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.[4][8]
  • 10th century – First used as an auxiliary.[4]
  • c. 1040 – Avoir is used as a noun, “possessions”.[7][4]
  • 1080 – Avoir vil “to hold in contempt” is recorded.[4]
  • c. 1150 – First sexual sense, “to possess”.[4]
  • 13th century – Il y a appears beside older il a.[8]
  • 16th century – The future aurai replaces arai.[3][4]
  • 1680 – The noun means the credit side of an account.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To have, to own, to possess.[9][1]
  2. To have the use of, to have at one's disposal: avoir le temps.[2][9]
  3. To get, to obtain.[2][1]
  4. To have, to feel (a sensation, a feeling) or to suffer from (an illness): avoir faim, avoir peur.[1][4]
  5. To be (a certain age): il a vingt ans.[1]
  6. (auxiliary) Forms the compound tenses of most verbs: j'ai mangé.[1][10]
  7. Avoir à + infinitive: to have to, must.[1][4]
  8. (familiar) To get the better of, to trick: se faire avoir.[1][4]
  9. Il y a: there is, there are, (of time) ago.[4][1]

Noun

  1. What one owns; property, wealth.[9][10]
  2. (accounting) The credit side of an account: le doit et l'avoir.[9][10]
  3. A credit note given by a shop to a customer.[9][10]
  • habiter
  • Latin habeō
  • English aver

Usage notes

N'avoir qu'à and il n'y a qu'à mean “one only has to”; the second, run together as nyaka, is used mockingly of people who think problems are easy to solve.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 361b
  7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Avoir.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/avoir. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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