Etymologically
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bonheur

Etymology and origin of the French word bonheur

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1121 (bon oür)
Ultimate origin
Latin (augeō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin bonus
French bon
French bonheur
French bonjour
French bonsoir
Latin bonitas
English bounty

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bɔ.nœʁ/[1]

Forms

bonheur m (plural bonheurs)[1] Old French bon eür, bon oür, in two words, bon heur, bon-heur in the 16th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from French bon + heur (“luck, fortune”).[3][4][5][2][1] heur, Old French “aür”, “eür”, is from Latin agurium (“omen”), an altered form of classical “augurium” “omen, augury”; with the decline of pagan beliefs it came to mean fortune, good or bad.[6][7] “Augurium” belongs to the family of augeō (“to increase”).[7] Bloch and Wartburg attribute part of the success of “bonheur” to the clash between “heur” and heure, from which “heur” took its “h”.[6]

Compare Occitan bonur.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bon oür “happy fate, good fortune” is first found about 1121; the Châtelain de Coucy (12th century) writes joie d'amour, se bon eür m'i maine “the joy of love, if good luck leads me to it”.[3][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Littré notes that the etymology shows the original sense to be “good luck”, the sense close to “felicity” being secondary.[2] The old sense survives in porter bonheur, par bonheur, au petit bonheur and avoir le bonheur de.[5][8] From the 15th century it came to mean the state of a fully satisfied mind, happiness, now its main sense.[5][4] Meanwhile heur fell out of use after about 1660–70, surviving only in avoir l'heur de plaire, malheur was formed in the same way.[7][6] Ne pas connaître son bonheur is recorded in 1643.[9]

Timeline

  • c. 1121 – Bon oür “good fortune”.[3][7]
  • 15th century – “Happiness”.[5]
  • 1643 – Ne pas connaître son bonheur.[9]
  • c. 1660–70 – The simple heur goes out of use.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. happiness, bliss: le bonheur, faire le bonheur de quelqu'un.[5][1]
  2. A joy, a pleasure: quel bonheur de vous revoir![8]
  3. Good luck, good fortune: porter bonheur, par bonheur, luckily, au petit bonheur, at random.[5][1]
  4. (literary) Avec bonheur: successfully, felicitously, un bonheur d'expression.[5][4]

Word family

  • porte-bonheur

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  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 e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
Cite this entry

“Bonheur.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/bonheur. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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