confiscation

Forms

confiscation f (plural confiscations)^[1] Middle French conficacion (1358) and confiscacion.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnfiscātiō (“confiscation”), a word of imperial Latin,^[2][6][1] formed from cōnfiscātum, the supine of cōnfiscō (“to confiscate”).^[3][7] The Petit Robert traces it to the root of fiscus, the source of fisc.^[8]

Littré gives the cognates Occitan confiscation, Spanish confiscacion and Italian confiscatione.^[5] It belongs with the verb confisquer.^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is conficacion in 1358, in a document cited by Godefroy's Complément;^[2] confiscation follows in 1381, in papers of Charles VI's reign.^[2] It meant the seizure of a person's property for the public treasury or for another party.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Under the old monarchy the word was a legal term: Littré quotes a letter of Charles V on the use of confiscacions to repair a church, and Loysel's 16th-century maxim that the confiscation of movable goods belongs to the lord of the condemned man's residence.^[5] By about 1450 it could also mean the confiscated goods themselves (in Chastellain), a sense Littré still gives.^[7][5]

In modern law it is a penalty by which the state takes all or part of a person's property, as in the decree of 1792 confiscating the property of the émigrés.^[2][6] In the 20th century it also came to mean taking a forbidden object away from schoolchildren.^[7] Unlike the verb confisquer, which widened to everyday use, the noun has stayed rather specialized.^[9]

Timeline

• 1358 – First record, as conficacion.^[2][3]
• 1362 – The Anglo-Norman Dictionary's earliest record of confiscation.^[4]
• 1381 – The spelling confiscation in papers of Charles VI's reign.^[2]
• c. 1450 – Chastellain uses it for the confiscated property.^[7]
• 20th century – The schoolroom sense, taking a forbidden object from a pupil.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) The seizure of property by the state, or sometimes by a public body, as a penalty or a fiscal sanction: la confiscation des biens.^{[2][8][10][6]}
2. The act of confiscating something in general, a saisie: La confiscation de ses papiers l'a surpris.^[2][10]
3. The confiscated property itself.^[5][7]
4. The taking away of a forbidden object from a pupil.^[7]

Related words

• confisquer
• confiscable
• fisc
• Latin cōnfiscātiō
• English confiscation

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)