décevoir

Forms

décevoir^[1] Old French deceveir, decevoir and deçoivre.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French decevoir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *decipēre,^[3][4][5][1] an altered form of Classical dēcipere (“to catch, to deceive, to disappoint”).^[3][4][6] The Latin verb is formed from dē- and capiō (“to take, to seize”).^[4][7] The ⟨c⟩ was treated as at the start of a word, because speakers still felt the verb to be a compound, as with recevoir and concevoir.^[3][4][5]

Littré notes that Old French had a second form, deçoivre, the regular outcome of the Classical verb with its stress on the second syllable, while the form in ⟨-evoir⟩ points to a shifted stress.^[2] The word is only Gallo-Romance: compare Old Occitan decebre and Old Spanish decebir.^[4][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1135) has it in the sense “to deceive”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

For a long time it meant “to deceive, to beguile”, a sense still current in the 17th century;^[4][5] Furetière in 1690 glosses it “to deceive cleverly”.^[4][5]

The modern sense “to fail someone's hopes” appears about 1360–1400 in the past participle déçu in Froissart (Les Anglais virent bien qu'ils estoient déçus en leurs cuiders).^[3][5] Bloch and Wartburg suggest it may be a Latinism;^[5] Rey notes it was slow to win out, since Furetière still glosses déçu as “deceived”.^[4] The Petit Robert dates the transitive use “not to meet an expectation” to the 16th century and the everyday sense “to disappoint someone” to the 19th.^[8]

The present participle décevant became an adjective in the 12th century.^[4] déception, borrowed from Late Latin, followed the verb from “deceit” to “disappointment”.^[4] English deceive was borrowed from Old French about 1300.^[9]

Timeline

• 1121–1135 – Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire uses it for “to deceive”.^[3]
• 12th century – Décevant is used as an adjective.^[4]
• c. 1300 – English borrows it as deceive.^[9]
• c. 1360–1400 – Froissart uses déçu for someone whose hopes are disappointed.^[3][5]
• 1690 – Furetière still defines it as “to deceive cleverly”.^[4]
• 19th century – “To disappoint” becomes the everyday sense.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To disappoint: to fall short of someone's hopes or of what was expected: Ce film m’a déçu., décevoir les espoirs de ses parents.^[8][3][7]
2. (archaic) To deceive or beguile by a misleading appearance.^[8][3][1]

Word family

• décevant
• déçu

Related words

• déception
• recevoir
• concevoir
• Latin dēcipiō
• English deceive

References

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