comprendre

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔ̃.pʁɑ̃dʁ/^[1]

Forms

comprendre^[1] Old French cumprendre.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin comprehendō (“to grasp, seize; to include; to understand”), in its contracted form “comprendere”.^[3][2][4] Bloch and Wartburg and Wiktionary present it as inherited from popular Latin “comprendere”.^[5][1] The Latin verb was formed from cum (“with”) and prehendō (“to take, seize”) (see prendre), literally “to seize together, embrace”; the intellectual sense “to grasp with the mind” appears in Cicero and lives on in all the Romance languages.^[3][5][6]

Cognate with Romanian cuprinde (“to include”), Italian comprendere, Catalan comprendre and Spanish comprender.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1120 in the Oxford Psalter in the physical sense “to seize, catch”: e seient cumpris en la lur superbe “and let them be taken in their pride”, translating Latin comprehendantur.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense made the word a near-synonym of prendre until the 16th century (last recorded 1604), sometimes with the violent force of “to grab”.^[3][2] It gradually gave way to “to include, embrace in a whole” (late 12th century) and to “to grasp with the mind” (late 12th or early 13th century); the latter was rare until the 15th century, but from the 17th century it drove entendre out of everyday use in this sense.^[2][3][5] By extension comprendre came to mean “to understand someone, accept their reasons”, now the dominant sense.^[2]

Familiar nouns for “understanding, wits” were formed regionally: comprenure (Canada, 1835), comprenette (Paris, 1886–1896) and comprenoire (1926).^[2][5] incompris (about 1450) has had an emotional sense, “misunderstood”, since 1831.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Cumpris “seized” in the Oxford Psalter.^[3]
• Late 12th century – “To include”.^[3]
• Late 12th–early 13th century – “To understand”.^[3]
• c. 1450 – Incompris.^[2]
• 1604 – Last record of the sense “to seize”.^[3]
• 17th century – Replaces entendre “to understand” in everyday use.^[2]
• 1886 – Comprenette.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To include, comprise: La péninsule Ibérique comprend l'Espagne et le Portugal.^[8][9]
2. To include, count in: Le loyer ne comprend pas les charges, y compris.^[8][9]
3. To understand, grasp the meaning or reasons of: comprendre une phrase.^[9][1]
4. To understand (a person), sympathize with: Je vous comprends.^[2][8]
5. Se comprendre: to understand one another; to be understandable.^[1]

Word family

• incompris
• comprenette
• compris

Related words

• compréhensible
• compréhension
• prendre
• entendre

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 988a
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse