croître

Forms

croître^[1] Old French creistre, crestre, then from the 12th century croistre.^[2][3] Forms in craître lasted until the 18th century, when the spelling croître appears.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French creistre, inherited from Latin crēscō (“to come into being, grow, increase”).^[5][6][1] The Latin verb meant first “to be born” and “to sprout” (of plants), then “to grow, increase”, literally and figuratively.^[5][2] Rey compares it with Armenian and Greek words for “beget” and “sated” and with Lithuanian šérti (“to feed”), and notes that the corresponding transitive verb is creō (“to create”), the source of créer.^[2] The Petit Robert ties it to the same Indo-European root as Cerēs, the goddess of grain.^[7]

Cognate with Italian crescere, Spanish crecer, Portuguese crescer, Catalan créixer, Occitan creisser and Romanian crește.^[7][8] Bloch and Wartburg note that in the northern Gallo-Romance dialects the word gave way, above all to pousser.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as creistre in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), of plants that sprout and thrive: ne blet n'i puet pas creistre “no corn can grow there”.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

Said of living things growing to their full size, croître has lost ground to the commoner pousser and grandir, and survives in that sense mainly in set phrases such as ne faire que croître et embellir.^[2][7] It has held up better of things that become larger, stronger or more numerous, and in the biblical croissez et multipliez.^[2][7] Its old transitive use, once tolerated, has given way to accroître.^[2]

The verb has a wide family of its own: the noun croît (first croiz, about 1160–1174) narrowed in the 16th century to the yearly increase of a herd,^[2] and croissance (about 1190) was formed on the present participle after Latin crescentia.^[2][8] Croissant first named the waxing of the moon, then the crescent shape, recorded in the 13th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Creistre appears in the Chanson de Roland, of plants.^[5][3]
• 12th century – The form croistre is recorded.^[2][3]
• c. 1160–1174 – The noun croiz, later croît, is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1190 – Croissance is first recorded.^[2]
• 13th century – Croissant is used for the crescent moon.^[8]
• 18th century – The forms in craître go out of use, and croître is written.^[2][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of living things, to grow gradually to full size, and of plants, to grow or sprout.^[7][10]
2. To increase in size, number, length or intensity.^[5][2]
3. (figurative, literary) To grow in a quality: croître en sagesse.^[9]
4. Ne faire que croître et embellir: to keep getting better, and ironically, worse.^[7][9]

Word family

• croissance
• croissant
• croît
• crue
• décroître
• recroître
• surcroître

Related words

• accroître
• excroissance
• Latin crēscō

Usage notes

The proverb mauvaise herbe croît toujours is said jokingly of children who grow fast.^[7] In the 17th century many speakers said craître, and poets rhymed croître with words in -aître.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1323b
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)