colère

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔ.lɛʁ/^[1]
• IPA (Louisiana): [kolæ(ɾ)]^[1]
• IPA (Quebec): [kɔ.laɛ̯ʁ]^[1]

Forms

colère f (plural colères)^[1] Colere (about 1265), collere (1416); also cholère until the 17th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cholera (“bilious disease, bile; in Late Latin, anger”), itself borrowed from Ancient Greek χολέρα (choléra, “cholera”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The sense “bile” came from confusion with χολή (cholḗ, “bile”), and the sense “anger” is already in Saint Jerome (4th century).^[4][2] It is a doublet of choléra.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brunetto Latini's Trésor (about 1265) uses colere for bile, a sense that lasted until the 16th century; the modern sense, a violent state of feeling, is in the Livre Caumont (1416).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

At first anger was still thought of as a heating of the bile, commonly called chaude chole; the spelling cholère kept the link until the 17th century, when colère broke with the theory of humours and replaced the older ire and courroux in everyday use.^[3][4][7] Its literary and biblical sense, a violent unleashing (les coleres du ciel, Belleau, 1556–77), rendered Latin ira as in jour de colère (dies irae).^[3][2]

The adjective colère “quick-tempered” (Gringore, 1505; of a person, Ronsard, 1550) was used by classical writers but after 1920 is only regional or archaic.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1265 – Colere “bile”, Brunetto Latini.^[2]
• 1416 – Collere “anger”.^[2]
• 1505 – Adjective “quick-tempered”, Gringore.^[2]
• 1556–77 – Les coleres du ciel, Belleau.^[2]
• 1835 – The derivative décolérer.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. anger, rage: se mettre en colère, être en colère, une colère noire.^[8][1]
2. A fit of anger: piquer une colère.^[8][2]
3. (literary) Violent fury (of the elements, of God): la colère des flots.^[2][3]

Adjective

1. (dated or regional) Quick-tempered, irascible.^[3][8]

Word family

• coléreux
• colérique
• décolérer

Related words

• choléra
• Ancient Greek χολή (cholḗ)

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ 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, 643a
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert