construire

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kɔ̃s.tʁɥiʁ/^[1]

Forms

construire^[1] Earlier construer (about 1290, Livre Roisin).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnstruō (“to heap up in layers; to build; to construe”),^[4][5][6][7] from com- and struō (“to arrange, pile up”).^[5][6][2][8] The Latin word was given its French form after détruire.^[3][2] Rey suggests the Latin stem may belong to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“to spread out”), whence the original idea of piling in layers.^[5]

Wiktionary describes it as inherited from Old French construir, itself borrowed from Latin.^[1] Cognate with Old Occitan construire, Spanish construir and Italian costruire.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in a 13th-century grammatical text: le substantif se construit bien par soi, et li adjectif nïent, “the noun is construed well by itself, and the adjective not”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical use, first reflexive, also became transitive (before 1530, construire une phrase).^[5] The current sense “to build” is found from 1466, first figuratively in Pierre Michault's Doctrinal du temps présent;^[4][5][2] Furetière (1690) records the geometrical sense of constructing a figure.^[4][5][2]

The noun construction (1130) is borrowed from Latin constructio; it has all the senses of the verb, and, from 1635 names a thing built.^[5][3] constructeur (14th century) spread in the second half of the 17th century in concrete senses.^[5]

Timeline

• 1130 – The noun construction.^[5]
• 13th century – Grammatical use.^[4]
• c. 1290 – The form construer.^[2]
• 1466 – “To build”, Pierre Michault.^[4]
• 1549 – reconstruire.^[3]
• 1690 – Geometrical sense, Furetière.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To build, put up according to a plan: construire une maison, une route, un pont; absolutely, permis de construire, planning permission.^[9][2]
2. To make a complex object; to manufacture: construire des automobiles.^[9]
3. To make up an abstract system or work: a theory, a novel, an argument.^[9][2]
4. (grammar) To arrange words in a sentence, se construire avec, to take a certain construction.^[4][5]
5. (geometry) To draw a figure.^[4][2]

Word family

• construction
• constructeur
• constructif
• reconstruire
• reconstruction

Related words

• détruire
• structure

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1087a
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert