contrat

Forms

contrat m (plural contrats)^[1] First written contract (1370); an older popular form contraut (1254) was still found in the 16th century.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman contract, contrat and contret (from 1275).^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin contractus (“agreement, pact”), a legal term of Late Latin formed from contrahō (“to draw together, to enter into an engagement”), from con- and trahō (“to draw, to pull”).^[2][3][5][1] The learned form displaced the more popular contraut.^[3] Since the first record has the learned form, the TLFi rejects a passage through Italian.^[2]

Compare Occitan contract, Spanish contrato and Italian contratto.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as contract in Nicole Oresme's translation of Aristotle's Ethics (1370), for an agreement of two or more wills that creates an obligation.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word is often specified by an adjective or complement naming the kind of contract, as in contrat de mariage (1672, Molière, Les Femmes savantes).^[3][2] By metonymy it names the written deed, hence the figurative donner des coups de canif dans le contrat “to be unfaithful” (1877, Zola).^[3][2] Contrat social, apparently coined by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762), named the implicit agreement between rulers and ruled; much used in the 18th century, it now alludes to Rousseau.^[3][2]

Probably after American English, the word came to mean an undertaking by a hired killer to murder someone, and by metonymy the victim.^[3]

Timeline

• 1370 – Oresme uses contract.^[2][6]
• 1672 – Molière writes of drawing up the marriage contract.^[2]
• 1675 – Quasi-contrat is borrowed from Latin.^[3]
• 1762 – Rousseau's Du contrat social.^[2][3]
• 1877 – Donner des coups de canif dans le contrat appears in Zola's L'Assommoir.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (law) A contract, an agreement by which one or more persons bind themselves to others to give, do or not do something;^[7][2][8] contrat de vente, contrat de travail.^[7][2][8]
2. Contrat de mariage, or simply contrat: a marriage settlement fixing the spouses' property arrangements.^[7][2]
3. The written deed recording such an agreement.^[3]
4. Contrat social: the social contract, the implicit agreement between the members of a society and those who govern them.^[3][9]
5. (slang) A contract to kill someone; the intended victim.^[3]

Related words

• contracter
• contractuel
• quasi-contrat
• traire
• Latin contractus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse