clientèle

Forms

clientèle f (plural clientèles)^[1] Littré cites the older spelling clientelle from Cotgrave.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin clientēla (“clientship, body of clients”), from cliēns (“client, protected follower”).^{[3][4][5][2][1]} In Medieval Latin the word also meant “the friends of a man” (671–709), “vassalage, the body of vassals” (1021–1024) and “a lord's household officers” (1136).^[3][4] Picoche notes that the Latin noun may be of Etruscan origin.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert date the word to 1352.^[7][8] The first dated text the TLFi quotes is a letter of Louis XI of 1474, where it means the protection given by a man of law.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word named the people placed under the protection of a more powerful man (1516), modelled on the Roman sense of the clients of a patron.^[3][4] Like client, it took a commercial sense in the 19th century: the customers of a trader or an establishment, often loyal to it (1832).^[3][4] From 1851 it is also used of the people found together in the same circles.^[3]

In law and medicine the word keeps something of the old idea of protection, and in politics, of the supporters of a party or a politician, it revives the sense “people protected by a powerful man”; from this use came clientélisme, recorded in 1972, a pejorative word for politics run on self-interested personal ties.^[4]

English took clientele from French in the 1560s for the clients of a patron; the main modern English sense, “customers”, dates from 1857 and may be a second borrowing from French.^[9]

Timeline

• 1352 – First record of the word.^[7][5][8]
• 1474 – A letter of Louis XI uses it for the protection given by a man of law.^[3]
• 1516 – It names the people under the protection of a more powerful man.^[4][3]
• 1560s – English borrows it as clientele.^[9]
• 1832 – Raymond records the commercial sense “the customers of a business”.^[3][4]
• 1851 – Used of the people who meet in the same circles.^[3]
• 1972 – The derivative clientélisme is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Roman antiquity) The body of clients attached to a patrician patron.^[8][3][2]
2. (figurative) The supporters of a political party or politician, or the people who regularly frequent a milieu.^[8][3]
3. The clients of a professional, such as a doctor or lawyer, who use his or her services for a fee.^[8][2]
4. The customers of a shop or business, taken together: Ce restaurant a une clientèle fidèle.^[8][3]

Word family

• clientélisme

Related words

• client
• Latin clientela
• English clientele

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com