cimetière

Forms

cimetière m (plural cimetières)^[1] Old French cimetire (1155), cimentiere, chimentiere;^[2][3][4] cimetiere from the 13th century.^[2][3][4] Masculine and feminine until the 16th century.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin cimiterium, a Christian Latin form for coemeterium, itself borrowed from Ancient Greek κοιμητήριον (koimētḗrion, “dormitory; place where the dead rest”).^[2][5][6][7] The Greek word is from κοιμάω (koimáō, “to put to sleep”), which Rey connects with κεῖμαι (keîmai, “to lie”).^[5][4] The ⟨i⟩ is perhaps due to the popular pronunciation of Greek, kept in Modern Greek.^[2][3] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned word.^[1]

Littré lists Old Occitan cementeri, Spanish cimenterio and Italian cimeterio.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut (1155) has cimetire, the ground where the dead are buried.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word had several forms in Old French and was also feminine; the masculine cimetière became general in the 16th century, while cimentière lived on in the west and in Picard.^[5][3] It drove out aître, from Latin ātrium (“court”), which had come to mean the parvis and the ground beside the church used for burials, except in Walloon and Lorrain.^[5][3] Cemeteries, once beside town churches, were moved to the outskirts in the 18th century.^[5]

From 1513 it was used figuratively for a place where many people die.^[2][5] By analogy it names a place where scrapped objects are gathered, as un cimetière de voitures.^[8]

Timeline

• 1155 – Cimetire in Wace's Brut.^[2]
• 13th century – The form cimetiere.^[2][5]
• 1513 – Used figuratively of a place where many die.^[2]
• 16th century – The masculine cimetière becomes general.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cemetery, graveyard: ground where the dead are buried.^[9][1][2]
2. A place where dead animals or scrapped objects are gathered: un cimetière de bateaux, le cimetière des éléphants.^[8][9]
3. (figurative) A place where death strikes many people.^[4][2]

Related words

• aître
• Latin coemeterium

Usage notes

In the old language aître named the ground beside the church; in Walloon and Lorrain it survived for “cemetery”.^[3][5]

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 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 834b
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert