commune

Forms

commune f (plural communes)^[1] Old French cumune and comune, and comugne from the 12th to the 14th century, mainly in northern texts.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French comune, inherited from Vulgar Latin communia (“a community of people”), the neuter plural of Latin communis (“common”) used as a noun and taken as a feminine singular.^[2][5][3][6] Bloch and Wartburg explain the noun as a gathering of people who live in common, and say the older northern form comugne was remodelled after the feminine of the adjective commun.^[3] Wiktionary instead calls it a borrowing of Medieval Latin communia.^[1]

Littré compares Occitan comuna.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, cumune, is in Geffrei Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis (about 1138), where it means the whole of the people.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

By 1155, in Wace's Brut, comune named the body of burghers of a town who had won franchises from their lord, often confirmed by a charter.^[2] Through the Middle Ages it named such a town or market town, freed from feudal rule and governed by its burghers, and by metonymy that body of burghers.^[5][4] The Académie listed this sense as historical from 1835.^[2]

English common, borrowed from the French word, meant the people as opposed to the nobility and then their representatives in Parliament;^[5][2] French took back the English phrase as Chambre des communes (1690).^[5][2] With the Revolution, a decree of 1789 made commune the name of the basic administrative division, which it still is.^[2][5] It named the municipality of Paris in 1790 and the insurrectionary body formed in the night of 9 to 10 August 1792.^[2][5] In homage to it, the revolutionary government set up in Paris after the rising of 18 March 1871 was called la Commune; the name had already been used at a meeting of National Guard officers on 31 October 1870.^[2][5] From this came communard (1871), the only direct derivative of the noun.^[5][3]

In Swiss French it enters institutional phrases such as commune d'origine, the commune where a Swiss citizen holds rights of citizenship, and in Belgium it is also used for the town hall.^[5] English took commune in 1792, of the French administrative division.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1138 – Cumune “the whole people” in Gaimar's Estoire des Engleis.^[2][5]
• 1155 – Comune names the body of burghers of a chartered town in Wace's Brut.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records Chambre des Communes, after English House of Commons.^[2][6]
• 1789 – A decree uses it for the basic administrative division.^[2][5]
• 1790 – It names the municipality of Paris.^[2][5]
• 1792 – It names the insurrectionary Commune of 10 August.^[2][5]
• 1792 – English commune is first recorded, of France.^[8]
• 1835 – The Académie gives the modern administrative sense.^[2]
• 1871 – La Commune names the revolutionary government of Paris, and communard appears.^[2][5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A town freed from feudal rule and run by its own burghers, and the body of those burghers.^[4][9][10]
2. In France, the smallest administrative division, run by a maire, deputies and a municipal council: Notre commune compte trois mille habitants.^[9][10][6]
3. The commune as a legal body, represented by its inhabitants and their municipalité: les biens de la commune.^[9][6]
4. A basic administrative division of many other countries.^[10]
5. (history) La Commune: the municipality of Paris that became a revolutionary government in 1792, and the revolutionary government of Paris in 1871.^[9][2]
6. Chambre des communes, les Communes: the House of Commons, the elected chamber of the British Parliament.^[4][9]
7. Commune populaire: in China, an administrative and economic unit grouping several villages.^[4]
8. A community of people living together and sharing their property.^[1]

Word family

• communard

Related words

• commun
• communal
• Latin communis
• English commune

Usage notes

Commune is also the feminine of the adjective commun “common”, a different use of the same Latin word.^[2][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 p q r s t 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e 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 j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)