Etymologically
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avoir

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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; English aver was borrowed through Old French.[8][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 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)