crainte

Forms

crainte f (plural craintes)^[1] Old French crieme, craime, criente, creinte and craincte.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from French craindre, formed at first on the older forms of the verb.^[5][3] The oldest noun was crieme (first half of the 12th century), from the old verb criembre;^[5][6] the present form (about 1280) is its remaking on the newer verb form, and it replaced the older noun.^[7][1] Littré instead derives the old noun directly from the old verb cremir.^[4]

The verb goes back to Latin tremō (“to tremble”), which must have become *cremō in the Latin of Gaul by crossing with a word built on Gaulish *crit-, a stem Rey infers from Irish crith (“shiver”).^[7][8] In other Romance languages the Latin verb kept the sense “to tremble”, as in Italian tremare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as crieme in the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century), meaning fear or fright.^[5][2] Littré quotes la crieme de nostre Segnor “the fear of our Lord” as the beginning of wisdom, from a 12th-century psalter.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the noun took over the senses of the verb: fear, and in a religious context sacred awe or respect, recorded about 1180 in Partonopeus de Blois.^[5][7] It entered the conjunction de crainte que (1579) and the prepositional phrases par crainte de and de crainte de.^[5][7] Old legal language distinguished a crainte révérencielle, due to parents, from a crainte grave strong enough to make a contract void.^[4]

In the 1980s and 1990s, like craindre, it gained a new life as a hyperbolic word in young people's speech: c'est la crainte “it's awful”.^[7] Its derivative is craintif (1393, first craintis in 1372).^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Crieme appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][5]
• c. 1180 – Used of reverent fear of God, in Partonopeus de Blois.^[5]
• c. 1280 – The form crainte appears in the Clef d'Amour.^[5][2]
• 1372 – The derivative craintis, later craintif, is recorded.^[7]
• 1579 – De crainte que appears in Robert Garnier.^[5]
• 1980s – C'est la crainte spreads in young people's slang.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. fear, anxious apprehension of a coming evil or danger: elle vivait dans la crainte d'un nouvel incendie.^[6][5]
2. Crainte de Dieu: reverent fear, respect mixed with awe.^[6][4]
3. De crainte que, de crainte de, par crainte de: for fear that, for fear of.^[5][7]
4. N'ayez crainte: don't worry, have no fear (also as a threat).^[6]
5. (slang) C'est la crainte: it's awful, it's lame.^[7]

Word family

• craintif

Related words

• craindre
• trembler
• Latin tremō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 239a