coercitif

Forms

coercitif (feminine coercitive, masculine plural coercitifs, feminine plural coercitives)^[1] The TLFi also gives the spelling coërcitif, which its 19th-century quotations use.^[2] Wiktionnaire records cœrcitif as a spelling variant.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin coercitus, the past participle of coerceō (“to restrain, compel”), with the suffix -if.^[2][4][5] It was formed as the adjective of coercition, perhaps after Medieval Latin coercitiva potentia (“power of coercion”) (13th century).^[6][2] Wiktionnaire sees a change of suffix from that noun.^[3]

Picoche places the Latin verb in the learned family of arceō (“to contain, keep off”), with exercer.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from Guillaume Postel's République des Turcs (1559), in lois coercitives and justice coercitive, laws and justice able to compel.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first belonged to law and government, describing an authority that has the power to compel.^[2][5] By extension it came to mean simply constraining, as in Durkheim's use of it for communal life in 1893.^[2] Unlike coercible and incoercible, it is used only of constraint, especially social or administrative, not of physical compression.^[6]

In physics, champ coercitif names the magnetic field needed to remove the magnetization of a magnetized body.^[4][5] The rare noun coercitivité was derived from it about 1950.^[6]

Timeline

• 1559 – Guillaume Postel writes of lois coercitives.^[2][6]
• 1807 – Destutt de Tracy writes of a moyen coërcitif.^[2]
• 1893 – Durkheim uses it in the wider sense “constraining”.^[2]
• c. 1950 – The derivative coercitivité appears.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (law) Having the power of coercition: pouvoir coercitif.^[2][5][4]
2. That constrains or coerces: des mesures coercitives.^[4][5][8]
3. (physics) Champ coercitif: the coercive field that cancels a body's remaining magnetization.^[4][5]

Word family

• coercitivité
• incoercitif

Related words

• coercition
• coercible
• incoercible
• Latin coerceō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
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 f Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)