défectif

Forms

défectif (feminine défective, masculine plural défectifs, feminine plural défectives)^[1] Middle French also wrote it deffectif and defectif.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēfectīvus (“imperfect, faulty”), a word of the Latin grammarians formed on dēfectum, the supine of dēficiō (“to be lacking, fail”).^[4][5][6] The Latin adjective meant “imperfect, faulty” from about 400 (Augustine) and was used of words lacking some of their forms from the 4th century (Charisius).^[3] The revised notice of the TLFi suggests that the word came into French either through writers such as Augustine and Gregory the Great and, for the grammatical sense, Donatus, or through the technical Medieval Latin of the schools.^[3][7] Littré analyses the Latin verb as dē- and faciō (“to do, make”), properly “to undo”.^[2]

The noun sense “mentally deficient person” is a calque of the English word defective, used in this sense from 1898.^[3]

Cognate with Occitan defectiu, Spanish defectivo and Italian difettivo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found at the end of the 13th century in an Anglo-Norman legal text, the Mirror of Justices, in the sense “faulty, defective” of a thing: a point of the Great Charter is called defective par defaute de adicion de peine, “defective for want of an added penalty”.^[3] The TLFi had dated the word from 1314, in Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie, with the sense “having defects”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French the adjective meant “faulty” of things until the end of the 15th century and, from 1412–1413, “imperfect” of a person, in body or mind, until the mid-16th century.^[3] This general sense then went out of use in favour of défectueux.^[5]

The grammatical sense, of a verb or noun that lacks some of its forms, is recorded from the second half of the 14th century in a Latin–French glossary.^[3] The older handbooks dated it much later: Bloch and Wartburg to 1629, the TLFi to Richelet's verbe défectif of 1680.^[8][4][5] Littré also notes the word in geometry, for a kind of hyperbola.^[2]

In the 20th century the word entered music, of a scale that does not use all seven notes of a mode (1925).^[3] In 1935 the physician Alexis Carrel used it as a noun for a person lacking normal mental faculties, after the English usage; the sense was not taken up by medical writers or dictionaries.^[3]

Timeline

• 1275–1300 – First recorded in the Anglo-Norman Mirror of Justices, meaning “faulty”.^[3]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie uses it in the sense “having defects”.^[4]
• Second half of the 14th century – A Latin–French glossary calls cedo a verbe defectif.^[3]
• 1412–1413 – Christine de Pizan uses it of a person, “imperfect”.^[3]
• 1494 – Last record of the sense “faulty” of a thing.^[3]
• 1559 – Last record of the sense “imperfect” of a person.^[3]
• 1680 – Richelet records verbe défectif.^[4]
• 1925 – First used in music, of a scale.^[3]
• 1935 – Alexis Carrel uses it as a noun for a mentally deficient person.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (grammar) Of a verb or a declinable word: lacking some of the forms that other words of its class have in use, such as certain tenses, moods or persons.^[4][9][2]
2. (music) Of a scale: lacking the semitones, or not using all seven notes of a mode.^[4][3]
3. (obsolete) Defective, having faults.^[5][3]

Noun

1. (grammar) A defective verb, one lacking some of its forms.^[10]

Related words

• défectueux
• défection
• déficit
• Latin dēfectīvus
• Latin dēficiō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 j k l m n o p q r Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 28b
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)