complémentaire

Forms

complémentaire (plural complémentaires)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French complément + -aire.^[2][3][4][1] The base noun is from Latin complēmentum, from compleō (“to fill up”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1791, in the phrase articles complémentaires “additional articles”, in the Moniteur.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective meant from the start “that completes something”, and it took several special senses.^[5] During the Revolution the jours complémentaires (1795) were the five or six days added to the twelve thirty-day months of the republican calendar.^[2][6][7] Following the uses of complément, it entered grammar (1803, proposition complémentaire), optics (1816, couleurs complémentaires, and through optics painting), geometry (1863) and arithmetic (1869).^[5][2] The TLFi's first record of the colours is in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (1862).^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1791 – Articles complémentaires in the Moniteur.^[2][7]
• 1795 – Jours complémentaires of the republican calendar.^[2][5]
• 1803 – First grammatical use.^[5]
• 1816 – Couleurs complémentaires in optics.^[5]
• 1863 – Used in geometry.^[5]
• 1903 – The adverb complémentairement appears, in Alfred Jarry.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That completes something, additional: une somme complémentaire, des informations complémentaires.^[9][2]
2. Of two things or people: that complete each other: Ces deux associés ont des talents complémentaires.^[9][2]
3. (mathematics) Angles complémentaires: angles whose sum is a right angle.^[9][6]
4. (physics) Couleurs complémentaires: colours that together give the sensation of white.^[9][6]
5. (history) Jours complémentaires: the extra days at the end of the year in the French republican calendar.^[6][7]

Noun

1. (mathematics) The complement of a subset: the elements of a set that do not belong to the subset.^[9]
2. La complémentaire: short for retraite complémentaire, a supplementary pension.^[9]

Word family

• complémentairement

Related words

• complément
• compléter
• complet
• Latin complēmentum

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert