confinement

Forms

confinement m (plural confinements)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French confiner + -ment.^[2][3][1][4] The verb is a denominative of confins “borders”,^[2] which is from Latin confīnium (“common boundary”), from cum (“with”) and fīnis (“boundary, end”).^[2][5] The FEW lists it under the Latin adjective confīnis.^[6] For the penal sense the TLFi suggests the influence of the Anglo-American term solitary confinement.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in a royal ordinance of 1481, in the isolated sense of “confined land”, land within limits.^[2][7][8]

Semantic evolution

It then became the action noun of confiner “to shut in”, first in a penal context: Fauchet uses it for imprisonment in 1579,^[2][8] and Pasquier wrote of a death sentence exchanged for “a confinement in a monastery”.^[9][10] Amyot used it in the 16th century both for a boundary and for a place to which souls are banished.^[10][9] The word fell out of use in the 17th century and was revived in the 19th as a term of criminal law: in 1845 Bescherelle defines it as the punishment of isolation much used in the United States.^[2][7]

In modern French it means above all being shut in within narrow limits, concrete or abstract.^[8][2] In medicine it is the keeping of a patient in his room,^[11] and in nuclear physics the containment of particles or of radioactive matter.^[11][5] It also names a safety measure that keeps people indoors to protect them from a toxic cloud or an infectious disease.^[5] Since 2020 it has also named the stay-at-home lockdown that most states imposed against COVID-19.^[5][1]

Timeline

• 1481 – A royal ordinance uses it of confined land.^[2][3]
• 1579 – Fauchet uses it for imprisonment.^[2][10]
• 1801 – Crèvecœur writes of American (solitary) confinement.^[2]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records it as a term of criminal law.^[2][7]
• 2020 – It names the lockdown imposed against COVID-19.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of confining someone or something, or of confining oneself, in a place; the state of being confined: le confinement des élèves dans le gymnase.^[11][12][4]
2. (medicine) The order forbidding a patient to leave his room; quarantine.^[11][1]
3. (dated, law) The penalty of keeping a prisoner in isolation.^[2][7][9]
4. A stay-at-home lockdown imposed on a population, especially the one ordered against COVID-19 from March 2020.^[5][1]
5. A safety measure keeping people in closed spaces to protect them from a toxic or radioactive cloud.^[5]
6. (nuclear physics) The containment of particles or radioactive matter within a given space: barrière de confinement, also confinement d'un plasma.^[11][5][4]
7. (physics) The property by which quarks and gluons cannot be observed in isolation.^[11]

Related words

• confiner
• confins
• Latin confīnium
• English confinement

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Huguet, Edmond (1925–1967), Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle, 7 vols., Paris: Champion / Didier
11. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)