chantre

Forms

chantre m or f by sense (plural chantres, feminine chantresse)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French chantre, inherited from Latin cantor (“singer”), from the Latin nominative, whereas chanteur continues the accusative cantōrem.^[2][1][3][4] The regular Old French accusative chantur (12th century) was soon replaced by chanteor, and Old French chanterre is an analogical form rather than the outcome of cantātor.^[5] The Latin noun is derived from canō (“to sing”).^[3] It had become a church word in Latin, for the cantor of a church, by the Council of Carthage in 398.^[2] pâtre beside pasteur shows the same split of nominative and accusative.^[3]

Compare Old Provençal cantre and cantor, and Italian cantore; Spanish chantre was borrowed from French.^[5][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1227, in Gautier de Coinci's De Seinte Leocade, for the dignitary who leads the singing of the choir in a cathedral or collegiate church.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Rey describes chantre as at first a synonym of chanteur before it was kept for a singer in church.^[7] In the 14th century Froissart used it for the choir singers of a chapel;^[2] the GLLF dates the plain sense “singer” to 1487, and the Petit Robert marks it as old, from the 15th to the 17th century.^[8][9] Bloch and Wartburg date the narrowing to the present sense to the 15th century, alongside the word's use in poetry.^[5]

Ronsard (1572) used it for one who celebrates someone in verse, La Fontaine (1671) for the poet of heroes and great deeds, as in le chantre d'Ionie for Homer.^[2][8][3][9] Today it is also used of a champion of a cause, as in se faire le chantre de.^[9] Littré records it for songbirds too, the nightingale being le chantre du printemps.^[3] A loud sonorous voice is a voix de chantre, and the GLLF gives the familiar ronfler comme un chantre “to snore very loudly”.^[9][2][8]

Timeline

• 398 – Latin cantor names a church cantor at the Council of Carthage.^[2]
• 1227 – Gautier de Coinci uses chantre for a cathedral's choirmaster.^[2]
• 14th century – Froissart applies it to choir singers.^[2]
• 1335 – The derivative chantrerie is recorded, for a body of church singers.^[2]
• 1487 – The sense “singer” is dated by the GLLF.^[8]
• 1572 – Ronsard uses it of one who celebrates a person.^[2]
• 1671 – La Fontaine uses it of the poet of heroes.^[2][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A singer in religious services, a cantor in a church or a synagogue.^[9][1]
2. Grand chantre: the dignitary who acts as choirmaster in a chapter.^[9][2]
3. (archaic) A singer; also, poetically, a songbird.^[9][2][3]
4. (literary) An epic or lyric poet, a bard: le chantre d'Ionie (Homer).^[9][3]
5. (literary) One who celebrates or champions someone or something: se faire le chantre de la liberté.^[9][1]

Word family

• chantrerie

Related words

• chanson
• chanter
• chanteur
• chant
• Latin cantor

Usage notes

Herbe aux chantres is a name of hedge mustard (Sisymbrium) in the Petit Robert;^[9][6] Meyer-Lübke records herbe au chantre for the meadow saffron, because it was used against hoarseness.^[9][6] Wiktionary gives the feminine chantresse.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 236a
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert