Etymologically
Log in

chance

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 06:25. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʃɑ̃s/[1]

Forms

chance f (plural chances)[1] Old French chaance (about 1175), cheance, Picard caanche (1200).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cheance, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“a falling”), the neuter plural of the present participle of cadō (“to fall”) (see choir) taken as a feminine noun.[2][3][4][5][6] Classical Latin already used the verb in games of knucklebones and dice, of the way they fell.[2][4] The word is a doublet of cadence, borrowed from Italian.[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1175 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie as chaance, the way, usually favourable, in which an event may turn out, Jean Bodel's Jeu de saint Nicolas (1200) has caanche, the fall of the dice.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was neutral, bonne or male chance, like heur and fortune; already in Old French the singular took a favourable sense, opposed to malchance (12th century), while the plural kept the neutral sense “likelihood” (Rousseau, 1762: presque toutes les chances contre soi).[3][2][4] The dice sense was very common in the Middle Ages and until the 17th century, and survives only in phrases such as jouer sa chance.[4][3]

Chanceux dates from 1606 and is far more common in Quebec, where one says il est chanceux rather than il a de la chance, chançard dates from 1864.[3][4]

Timeline

  • c. 1175 – Chaance in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[2]
  • 1200 – Caanche “the fall of the dice”, in Jean Bodel.[2]
  • 12th century – Malechance.[4]
  • 1606 – Chanceux.[4][3]
  • 1762 – Les chances “likelihood”, in Rousseau.[2][3]
  • 1864 – Chançard.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. luck, good fortune: avoir de la chance, bonne chance ![7]
  2. Chance, the way things fall out: tenter sa chance.[7][3]
  3. (often plural) A likelihood, a chance: il y a des chances que…, avoir toutes ses chances.[7][3]
  4. An opportunity: c'est ta dernière chance.[7]

Word family

  • chanceux
  • malchanceux
  • chançard
  • choir
  • cadence
  • échéance
  • malchance

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 27a
  7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert