comité

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔ.mi.te/^[1]

Forms

comité m (plural comités)^[1] First written committé (1652); comité from 1690 (Furetière).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English committee.^{[5][2][6][1][7]} The English word was first a legal term meaning a person to whom something is entrusted (1495), then a political one (1621), a small number of chosen people meeting to deliberate on a question.^[5][2] It is probably formed with the suffix -ee on commit (“to entrust”), from Latin committō, the source of French commettre; the DHLF also allows a direct borrowing of the old French past participle of that verb, and Littré calls it an Anglo-French participle.^[5][2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1652 in a news sheet from London, Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres, in an English context.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

Close in meaning to commission, of the same origin, the word was at first kept for English affairs;^[2][5] Saint-Simon (1717) notes that comité was used because people spoke only in the English way.^[2][5] It spread in the mid-18th century (comité secret, 1750) and under the Revolution, in many phrases such as the Comité de salut public (1792).^[2] The unexplained loss of one ⟨m⟩ cut it off from commis, commission and commissaire.^[2]

It was applied to new fields: the theatre (comité, 1782, comité de lecture, 1799), then publishing, and firms (comité d'entreprise, 1945).^[2] The figurative petit comité, a small private gathering, is found in Madame du Deffand's letters (1710).^[5]

Timeline

• 1652 – Committé, in an English context.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records comité.^[3]
• 1710 – Petit comité in Madame du Deffand.^[5]
• 1750 – Comité secret.^[2]
• 1792 – The Comité de salut public.^[2]
• 1799 – Comité de lecture in the theatre.^[2]
• 1945 – Comité d'entreprise.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A committee, a small group chosen from a larger body to deal with certain matters or give advice: comité exécutif, comité des fêtes, comité de soutien.^[9][1]
2. Comité de lecture: a reading committee that chooses texts for publication or the stage.^[9]
3. Comité d'entreprise: a works council of employees' representatives.^[9][2]
4. En petit comité: among close friends, in a small private group.^[9]

Related words

• commission
• commettre
• English committee

Usage notes

An older comité, the officer who commanded the rowers of a galley, came from Italian comito and Latin comes (“companion”) (13th century).^[3]

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 m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 18, 45b
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert