confins

Forms

confins m pl (plural only)^[1] The singular confin of the first record is no longer used;^[2][3][4] Middle French also had confines.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnfīnium (“common boundary of lands, neighbourhood”), plural cōnfīnia, a noun formed from cum (“with”) and fīnis (“boundary, limit”).^[2][5][6] Rey explains the Latin noun as the neuter of the adjective cōnfīnis (“adjoining, neighbouring”), and notes that it already meant “neighbourhood” and, figuratively, an intermediate state.^[5] Bloch and Wartburg, the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert derive it instead from the plural of that adjective, which in Late Latin already meant “boundary”, a sense kept in Medieval Latin.^[3][7][8] It is related to fin¹.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural oblique form confin in the French translation of Aimé du Mont-Cassin's Ystoire de li Normant (about 1308), for the lands at the edge of a territory.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant the parts of a territory lying at its edge, on the border of another.^[5][2] Littré quotes aux confines de Piemont from the Ménagier in the 14th century,^[4] and Commynes has the modern plural confins in his Mémoires (1463).^[2][7] By extension it came to mean a far end or distant space, and in the 17th century it took back from Latin the figurative senses “passage between two states” and “extreme point”.^[5][2] The verb confiner is older than the noun in French (about 1225) and is counted as its derivative.^[3][5]

Timeline

• c. 1308 – The singular confin appears in the translation of Aimé du Mont-Cassin.^[2][6]
• 14th century – The Ménagier has aux confines de Piemont.^[4]
• 1463 – Commynes uses the plural confins.^[2][7]
• 1704 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux quotes Abadie for a figurative use, les confins de la Religion.^[2]
• 1802 – Chateaubriand uses it of an indistinct limit between two states.^[6]
• 1835 – The Académie records the sense “farthest part, extreme limit”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The parts of a territory at its edge, where it meets another: Le village se trouve aux confins de la Bourgogne.^[8][2]
2. The farthest part from a centre, an extreme limit, literally or figuratively.^[6][1]
3. (figurative) An intermediate degree, an uncertain boundary between two states.^[6][5]
4. (history, geography) Confins militaires: the Military Frontier, a province of the Austrian empire.^[4]

Word family

• confiner

Related words

• fin¹
• Latin cōnfīnium

Usage notes

The word is used only in the plural.^[1][8] It is mostly found in the phrase aux confins de “on the borders of, at the far end of”.^[8][2]

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 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 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 f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert