coureur

Forms

coureur m (plural coureurs, feminine coureuse)^[1] Old French coreor; the spelling coureur is found from the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French courir + -eur.^[4][5][6] Littré explains the Old French form coreor from an assumed Vulgar Latin *curritōrem, formed on currō (“to run”), the source of courir; like the other Old French agent nouns in -eor, it later became -eur.^[3][7] Compare Old Occitan corredor, Spanish corredor and Italian corridore.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman d'Eneas, about 1160, uses it for a scout sent ahead of an army.^[4] As an adjective, “running fast”, it appears in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie (1165–1170).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The military sense of a scout or raider sent out ahead lasted from the 12th to the 18th century.^[6] Froissart writes of English coureurs sent through the villages, who burned more than sixty of them in one raid.^[3] In the first half of the 13th century it also meant a messenger.^[4] Littré still records it for a footman who ran beside a carriage or carried messages for a person of rank.^[3]

The sense of a runner in a race is recorded in Amyot in 1559, and in the 19th century the word followed the sports senses of course, as in coureur de fond.^[4][6] In the 16th century the idea of running about gave the feminine coureuse “loose woman” (1560) and the masculine “debauchee” (1566), and coureur de for someone who frequents a place or chases a thing (1585).^[4]

In Canada, coureur de bois is attested from 1672, first pejoratively of fur smugglers who lived among the Native peoples, then from 1686 of licensed traders; the phrase entered French dictionaries with the 1727 edition of Furetière and became a heroic figure of North American history.^[6] In 1859 the plural coureurs was used for the running birds, after the scientific Latin name Cursores given by Blainville.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – The Roman d'Eneas uses it for a scout.^[4]
• 1165–1170 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it as an adjective, “running fast”.^[4]
• 13th century – It means a messenger.^[4]
• 1559 – Amyot uses it for a runner in a race.^[4][6]
• 1560 – Jacques Grévin uses the feminine for a loose woman.^[4]
• 1566 – Henri Estienne uses the masculine for a debauchee.^[4]
• 1672 – Coureur de bois is attested in Canada.^[6]
• 1727 – Coureur de bois enters Furetière's dictionary.^[6]
• 1859 – Bouillet records coureurs for the ratite birds.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or animal that runs, or that is built to run well: un excellent coureur.^[8][9][2]
2. (sport) A runner or racer taking part in a race: coureur à pied, coureur cycliste, coureur automobile.^[8][9][1]
3. Coureurs (plural): the flightless running birds, the ratites such as the ostrich and the emu; also as an adjective, oiseaux coureurs.^[8][4][9]
4. Coureur de: someone who frequents a place or chases after something: coureur de dot.^[8][2]
5. (historical) Coureur des bois or coureur de bois: a North American trapper and fur trader.^[8][6]
6. A man always after amorous adventures, a womanizer, also coureur de jupons; the feminine coureuse is a woman of loose morals; also as an adjective.^[8][9][4]

Word family

• avant-coureur

Related words

• courir
• course
• courrier
• Latin currō

Usage notes

In the sense of a North American woodsman, the phrase coureur de bois passed into Canadian English.^[6]

References

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