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créditer

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Etymology and origin of the French word créditer

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1671 Cleirac, Us et coutumes de la mer More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
Latin creditum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin crēditum
Italian credito
French crédit
Romanian credit
French créditer
Spanish crédito
The word's journey
From the same root
French créditeur ← crēditum
Spanish acreditar ← crēditum

Pronunciation

  • /kʁe.di.te/[1]

Forms

créditer[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French crédit + -er.[2][3][1] Bloch and Wartburg place it among the words formed from the banking sense of the noun, which was taken in the 15th century from Italian credito, itself from Latin crēditum (“loan, debt”).[4] Rey calls it a denominal verb.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1671, in Cleirac's Us et coutumes de la mer, meaning to enter a sum on the credit side of someone's account.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb began as a term of bookkeeping and banking: to make someone the creditor of a sum by entering it to the credit of his account, the opposite of débiter2.[5][2] Littré also records être crédité sur une ville, to hold letters of credit on a town.[7]

A figurative use, to credit someone with an action or a merit, is found by 1850 in Balzac;[6] Rey describes the construction créditer qqn de qqch. as belonging to a formal register.[5] In sport it came to mean crediting an athlete with a performance or a time.[6]

Timeline

  • 1671 – First recorded in Cleirac's Us et coutumes de la mer, of entering a sum to someone's credit.[2][6]
  • 1846 – Dumas uses it of guaranteeing someone a sum on a bank's credit.[2]
  • before 1850 – Balzac uses it figuratively, of crediting someone with a merit.[6]
  • 1873 – Littré records it as a commercial term.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (banking, accounting) To credit someone or an account with a sum, entering it on the credit side: la banque a crédité son compte de trois cents euros.[8][9][10]
  2. (figurative) To credit someone with something, to acknowledge it as his merit: on peut la créditer d'un vrai courage.[8][9][6]
  3. (sport) To credit an athlete with a performance or a time.[6]

Usage notes

Its opposite is débiter2.[8][2] The past participle used as a noun, le crédité, the beneficiary of a credit, is found in Proudhon (1846).[2]

References

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

“Créditer.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/cr%C3%A9diter. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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