cour

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kuʁ/^[1]

Forms

cour f (plural cours)^[1] Old French cort, curt (about 980), court, cour from the 14th–15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cort, inherited from Late Latin curtis (“farmyard; manor; royal residence”), recorded from the 6th century, from Latin cohors (“enclosure, yard; division of a camp, cohort”) (see cohorte).^{[5][2][6][3][7]} In Medieval Latin “curtis” already had most of the French senses: a farmyard, an enclosed holding, a royal residence, the king's household and the court of a prince sitting as a tribunal.^[5][2] The modern spelling without ⟨t⟩ is probably due to Medieval Latin curia, used in similar senses.^[5][2][6] Littré pointed out that the ⟨t⟩ of the old form and of courtois shows that the word does not come from “curia”.^[8]

The Petit Robert relates “cohors” to hortus (“garden”) and an Indo-European root “*gher-” “to enclose”, the source too of Frankish *gardo and of English garden.^[9] Cognate with Italian corte, Spanish corte, Occitan cort, Catalan cort and Romanian curte.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Passion of Clermont (second half of the 10th century) cort is an open space surrounded by walls and buildings; the Vie de saint Léger of the same period uses curt for the residence of a ruler.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In the Chanson de Roland the curt is the ruler's entourage: Meillur vassal n'aveit en la curt nul.^[5][8] About 1130 it was the assembly of vassals the king called together, and, from the early 12th century a seat of justice; the cour le roi was the first form of the Parlement, and cour remained the name of the higher courts (cours souveraines, 1549, Cour de cassation, 1804).^[5][2][6] Faire la court a quelqu'un “to seek someone's favour” is in Robert Estienne (1539), and of a woman it meant to woo her from the 1630s (Corneille).^[5][10]

The old rural sense, a farm or estate, survives in place names in -court, such as Harcourt.^[2][8] The cour des Miracles (1616) was the beggars' quarter of Paris, where infirmities vanished as if by miracle.^[5][2] On the stage côté cour is opposed to côté jardin.^[2] The old form court passed into English as court and came back as the tennis court.^[9]

Timeline

• Late 10th century – Cort, a courtyard, curt, a ruler's residence.^[5]
• c. 1100 – The ruler's entourage, Chanson de Roland.^[5]
• Early 12th century – A court of justice.^[5]
• 13th century – Basse-cour.^[6]
• c. 1352 – The form cour.^[2][3]
• 1539 – Faire la court a quelqu'ung.^[5]
• 1564 – Avant-cour.^[6]
• 1616 – Cour des Miracles.^[5]
• 1634 – Faire la cour to a woman, Corneille.^[10]
• 1804 – Cour de cassation.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A courtyard, yard: an open space enclosed by walls or buildings: cour d'honneur, cour de récréation, a playground, côté cour, stage right.^[9][11][4]
2. (Quebec) A backyard.^[1]
3. The court of a sovereign: his residence and entourage: la cour de Louis XIV.^[12][9]
4. (law) A court of justice, especially a higher court; its judges: cour d'appel, cour d'assises, Messieurs, la cour !.^[5][9]
5. Faire la cour à: to court, woo.^[9][1]
6. A group of admirers, a following: une cour d'admirateurs.^[5][1]

Word family

• courette
• courtois
• courtoisie
• arrière-cour
• avant-cour
• basse-cour

Related words

• courtisan
• courtiser
• cohorte
• court

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 849b
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)