cadre

Forms

cadre m (plural cadres)^[1] Earlier spelling quadre.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian quadro (“square, painting”), a noun use of the Italian adjective for square, which continues Latin quadrus (“square”), a derivative of quattuor (“four”).^[2][5][3] Littré and Wiktionary give the Latin source as the noun quadrum (“a square”).^[6][1] In Italian the noun named the square in geometry, then a square opening and a painting.^[2]

The same Latin word gave, by inheritance, Old French quarre, meaning a corner.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle French quadre (1354–1376) named a quarter of the moon, a sense later lost to quartier.^[2] The modern sense, the border of a picture, appears in Rabelais in 1549.^[5][3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the frame of a picture or mirror, at first always square, the word passed to a fixed rectangular framework such as a door frame (1690) and to technical uses: a ship's bunk (1736), papermaking (1751) and other trades.^[2] In the abstract it came to mean the surroundings that set off a person (before 1778) and the plan or structure of a work (1803, Chateaubriand); the administrative phrase dans le cadre de “within, as part of” has since spread widely.^[2]

By metonymy the word named a list of officers holding command, hence être rayé des cadres “to be dismissed” (1840), and the body of officers and non-commissioned officers of a unit (1796).^[2][5] It was then extended to the staff of an administrative department (1840) and, in the 20th century, to the managerial staff of a firm (1931); un cadre is now an executive or professional, opposed to employé.^[2] English borrowed cadre as “framework” (1830) and in the military sense (1851).^[8]

Timeline

• 1354–1376 – Quadre names a quarter of the moon.^[2]
• 1549 – Rabelais uses quadre for the frame of a picture.^[5][3]
• 1690 – Used of the fixed frame of a door.^[2]
• 1736 – A ship's bunk on a wooden frame.^[2][4]
• 1796 – The officers of a military unit.^[2][5]
• 1803 – Chateaubriand uses it for the plan of a work.^[2]
• 1830 – English borrows it in the sense “framework”.^[8]
• 1840 – Être rayé des cadres “to be dismissed”.^[2]
• 1931 – Les cadres: the managerial staff of a firm.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frame around a picture, a mirror or a photograph; by extension, a framed picture.^[4][9]
2. (technical) A fixed frame or chassis: the frame of a door or window, the frame of a bicycle, a frame in a beehive.^[4][10][9]
3. (nautical) A canvas bunk on a wooden frame.^[4]
4. A box or bordered area on a printed page.^[1]
5. Surroundings, setting: cadre de vie.^[10][9]
6. Limits, scope, framework: dans le cadre de “within, as part of”, also sortir du cadre de “to go beyond”.^[10][2]
7. (military) The officers and non-commissioned officers of a unit, the cadre.^[2][9][1]
8. An executive or manager in a firm or administration: cadre moyen, cadre supérieur.^[9][2][1]
9. A permanent active member of a party or union.^[9]

Word family

• cadrage
• cadrer
• décadrer
• encadrer
• encadrement
• encadreur

Related words

• carre
• carreau
• carrer
• équerre
• quatre
• carré
• Italian quadro
• Latin quadrus
• English cadre

Usage notes

Être rayé des cadres means “to be dismissed”.^[2] In apposition, cadre marks a general text whose details are to be set later, as in loi-cadre.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)