commission

Forms

commission f (plural commissions)^[1] Anglo-Norman commissioun, commissiun, comission.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commissiō,^{[3][4][5][1][6]} a noun formed on commissum, the supine of committō (“to bring together, entrust”), properly “a bringing into contact”; in Christian Latin it had come to mean the committing of a sin and an assembly of men.^[3][4] The French sense “charge, mission” comes from commettre in its sense “to appoint, to entrust a charge to”, for which the word served as the abstract noun.^[3][4][5] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert describe it as a word of northern France.^[7][8]

Cognate with Old Occitan comission, Spanish comisión and Italian commissione.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 13th century in the Coutumes d'Artois, meaning an order or mission given to someone.^[3][10][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a charge or mandate was specialized in law (commission rogatoire, in a variant form in 1690), at sea (1723) and in the army, for the warrant conferring a rank (1801–1805).^[4][3] In trade the word named dealing through an agent (1606) and then, by metonymy, the agent's percentage (1675).^[3][4] From 1690 the plural meant a charge to make purchases for someone, then the purchases themselves (1794); in the 19th century commissions became an everyday word for shopping in France, beside courses.^[3][4] Children's speech of the 20th century made la petite and la grosse commission euphemisms for excretion.^[4]

As the action noun of commettre, it meant the execution of a penalty in an isolated example of 1311, and a fault or sin in theology (pécher en commission, 1587, opposed to pécher en omission, “fault” in Pascal, 1656); these senses are obsolete.^[3][4] The sense “body of people charged with a task”, found in Late Latin, returned only with Montesquieu (before 1755) and spread through politics and administration.^[3][4] In Quebec a commission scolaire is a regional school board.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – First record, in the Coutumes d'Artois, meaning “order, mission”.^[3]
• 1311 – An isolated example means “execution of a penalty”.^[3]
• 1587 – Pécher en commission appears in theology.^[3][4]
• 1606 – Trafiquer par commission “to trade through an agent”.^[3]
• 1675 – Savary uses it for a broker's percentage.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records the plural for purchases made for someone.^[3][4]
• before 1755 – Montesquieu uses it for a committee.^[3][4]
• 1794 – Madame de Staël uses it for the purchases themselves.^[3]
• 1871 – Sous-commission is recorded.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (formal) A charge or mandate given to someone: remplir une commission.^[8][11]
2. (law) An act of authority conferring a function or powers for a time: commission rogatoire, a court's delegation of a procedural act to another court.^[8][11][12]
3. (commerce) The power given by one person (the commettant) to an agent (the commissionnaire) to act in his name.^[11][12]
4. A commission, the percentage an intermediary is paid: travailler à la commission.^[12][11][1]
5. An errand, a message or object to pass on for someone: J'ai une commission pour ta sœur.^[3][1]
6. (chiefly plural) Everyday shopping: faire les commissions.^[4][1]
7. A committee charged with studying a question or giving advice: commission d'enquête.^[9][12]
8. (law) The committing of an offence.^[11][12]
9. (children's language) La petite commission, la grosse commission: urinating, defecating.^[4][1]

Word family

• commissionnaire
• commissionner
• sous-commission

Related words

• commettre
• commissaire
• Latin commissiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 954a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)