cruauté

Forms

cruauté f (plural cruautés)^[1] Old French cruiauté, cruëlté, crüalté; the Anglo-Norman forms include creualté and cruelté.^[2][3] The learned crudelité is found in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin crūdēlitātem (“cruelty”), from crūdēlis (“cruel”).^[2][6][7] The French form is irregular: it is explained either by the attraction of nouns such as loyauté and féauté, or by an early popular form *crūdālitās, parallel to the *crūdālis behind cruel.^[2][6][4] Wiktionary also describes it as matching the adjective with the suffix -té.^[1]

Cognate with Occitan crueltat, Catalan crudeltat, Spanish crueldad, Portuguese crueldade and Italian crudeltà.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1150 as cruiauté in La Prise d'Orange, meaning a cruel act; the form cruëlté of the same period means the urge to make others suffer.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its strong original sense of a love of causing pain and death, while also weakening to the moral sense of a taste for tormenting and of indifference, especially in the classical language of love, where it is the coldness of a woman who rejects a lover.^[4][7][5] Gautier de Cambrai (1220–1225) applies it to things, the harshness of what makes one suffer.^[2] In the 17th century the plural could also mean odious or unfair things.^[4] The learned crudelité of the 15th and 16th centuries was sometimes used jokingly for crudité.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – Cruiauté “cruel act” in La Prise d'Orange.^[2][4]
• c. 1150 – Cruëlté “pleasure in causing suffering” in the Couronnement de Louis.^[2]
• 1220–1225 – Crüalté is used of what causes suffering, in Gautier de Cambrai.^[2][4]
• 15th–16th century – The learned crudelité is in use beside it.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. cruelty, the tendency to make others suffer: cruauté mentale “mental cruelty”.^[8][2]
2. The cruel character of an act or remark, or the ferocity of an animal.^[8]
3. (usually plural) A cruel act: les cruautés de Néron.^[5][1]
4. (literary) Harshness, hard treatment: les cruautés du sort.^[5]
5. (dated) The coldness of a woman who does not return a man's love.^[7][5]

Related words

• cruel
• Latin crūdēlis

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert