Etymologically
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bizarre

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bi.zaʁ/[1]

Forms

bizarre (plural bizarres)[1] In the 16th century it was also written bigearre, bigarre (by crossing with bigarré “variegated”) and bizerre;[2] bigearre lasted until the early 18th century.[3][4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian bizzarro (“irascible; extravagant”),[3][4][1][2] which meant “angry” in the early 14th century and “extravagant” from the early 16th.[3] The origin of the Italian word is uncertain.[4] Rey and Bloch and Wartburg reject both a borrowing from Spanish bizarro (“brave”), which is later (1526) and itself taken from Italian, and a derivation from Basque bizar (“beard”);[3][4] the Petit Robert and the GLLF still give the Spanish word as the source of the Italian one.[5][6] Littré thought the French word came from Spanish, since it first meant “brave”.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded before 1544 as bigarre, both as a feminine noun meaning “oddity” and as an adjective for a strange, singular person or thing;[3][2] in 1558 Des Périers writes of a man's “opinions bigearres”.[7][6]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word also meant “irritable”, after Italian, and “brave”, after Spanish (La Noue calls the French soldier bisarre, unable to live without fighting), but these senses and the noun une bizarre died out after that century.[3][7] Classical French used it for the extravagant and whimsical (La Bruyère),[6] and the modern sense is simply “odd, strange”.[5][8] Bizarrerie (1555) displaced the rivals bizarreté and bizarderie,[3][4] and the jocular bizarroïde appears in Alphonse Allais (1893).[3][9]

Timeline

  • before 1544 – Bigarre.[3][2]
  • 1555 – Bizarrerie.[3][4]
  • 1558 – Bigearre in Des Périers.[6][7]
  • 1572 – The spelling bizarre, in Tabourot des Accords.[3][2]
  • 1893 – Bizarroïde.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Odd, strange, out of the ordinary.[5][8]
  2. (of a person) Hard to understand; eccentric.[9][6]
  3. (classical) Whimsical, capricious, extravagant.[6]

Word family

  • bizarrerie

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  9. ^ a b 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