boursier

Forms

boursier (feminine boursière, masculine plural boursiers, feminine plural boursières)^[1] Old French borser (1224), remade as boursier in 1268.^[2] Middle French bourcier (1512) for the sense tied to the stock exchange.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French bourse + -ier.^[1][4][3] bourse “purse” is from Old French borse, from Late Latin bursa (“hide, leather”), from Ancient Greek βύρσα (búrsa, “hide”).^[1][2][4]

The word was derived from the noun more than once: the purse-maker and the treasurer in the 13th century, the holder of a grant or scholarship (also called a bourse) in the 14th–15th, and the stock-exchange sense from the Bourse “stock exchange” in the 16th.^[2][3] The Bourse (1549) itself comes from the purse, though how is uncertain: either by extension in a phrase meaning “money current at the time of payment” (1339), modelled on Medieval Latin moneta in bursa currens, or from a square in Bruges where the house of a noble family Van der Burse, adorned with three purses, lodged merchants, as Guichardin reported in 1567.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

As borser (1224) it named a craftsman who made purses; the form boursier is from 1268, in Étienne Boileau's book of crafts.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

By extension it meant the keeper of a common purse, a treasurer (13th century), a sense that grew archaic in the 18th century but is still used jokingly.^[2][7][3] The purse-maker went out of use with the craft: the Académie still listed it in 1835 and marked it obsolete in 1878.^[7][2]

A fresh derivation on bourse “grant” gave the pupil or student who holds a scholarship, first recorded in 1387 and long dated 1430 (Clément de Fauquembergue);^[8][5][9][4] this is the one sense of this line still alive.^[2] Pasquier explained in the 16th century that Paris students were called boursiers because they were fed from the common purse of their colleges' founders.^[10]

The second line goes back to bourcier (1512, Gringore), a person dealing on the exchange; the noun for a stock-exchange professional is dated 1846 and the adjective “of the stock exchange” 1837.^[2][6][9]

Timeline

• 1224 – Borser names a maker of purses.^[2][5]
• 1268 – The form boursier appears in Étienne Boileau.^[2][6]
• 13th century – It also means a treasurer.^[2][3]
• 1387 – First record of the sense “scholarship holder”.^[8][5][9]
• 1512 – Bourcier appears in Gringore, in the sense tied to the exchange.^[2][6]
• 1837 – The adjective “of the stock exchange” is recorded.^[9][2]
• 1846 – Used of a stock-exchange professional.^[9]
• 1878 – The Académie marks the purse-maker sense obsolete.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pupil, student or researcher who holds a bourse (a scholarship or grant).^[9][6][11]
2. A person who works on the stock exchange, a stockbroker or dealer.^[9][6][11]
3. (familiar) The keeper of a common purse, a treasurer.^[7]
4. (obsolete) A craftsman who made or sold purses.^[5][7]

Adjective

1. Holding a scholarship: une étudiante boursière.^[9][10]
2. Of the Bourse, the stock exchange: les cours boursiers.^[9][11]

Related words

• bourse
• boursicoter
• débourser
• rembourser
• Latin bursa

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give two headwords: boursier 1, from bourse “purse” (the purse-maker and the scholarship holder), and boursier 2, from Bourse “stock exchange” (the stockbroker and the adjective).^[5][9] The Académie likewise derives the two from bourse I and bourse II.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, 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 e 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
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)