césure

Forms

césure f (plural césures)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin caesūra (“a cutting”), a word that Latin used as a term of metre from the 4th century.^[2][3][1] The Latin noun is formed on the supine caesum of caedō (“to cut”).^[3][4][5][6] The same verb lies behind césarienne and ciseau.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Clément Marot uses it in 1537 as a term of French versification: a pause within a line of verse.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the pause in French verse, and in 1680 Richelet records it for ancient metre as well, where it is the syllable that ends a word and begins a new foot.^[2][3] Littré describes this classroom use for Latin verse and also the older sense of the first, shorter part of the hexameter, cut off from the rest.^[7]

By analogy it came to name a rest within a musical phrase, and literary style sometimes uses it for a pause or break in speech.^[3] The verb césurer “to mark with a caesura” is first recorded in Huysmans in 1884.^[2]

Timeline

• 1537 – Marot uses césure of the pause in French verse.^[2][4]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense in Greek and Latin metre.^[2][3]
• 1884 – The derived verb césurer appears in Huysmans.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (versification) A pause within a line of verse after a stressed syllable, which in classical verse divides it into two hemistichs.^[8][2]
2. (Greek and Latin metre) A break inside a metrical foot, where one word ends and the next begins.^[2][9]
3. (music) A rest within a musical phrase.^[3]

Related words

• césarienne
• ciseau
• Latin caesūra
• English caesura

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 41b
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse