déménager

Forms

déménager^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French dé- + ménage, first as desmanagier.^[2][3][4][5] The noun is from Old French manage, a derivative of manoir (“to dwell”);^[6] the FEW files the family under Latin maneō (“to stay”).^[7] The verb took up the first sense of the noun, household or dwelling: it meant to carry things out of the house.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rutebeuf's Complainte Rutebeuf (1262) has desmanagier “to carry out of the house”, an isolated record.^[2][5][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb reappears in Cotgrave (1611), meaning to move belongings from one dwelling to another.^[2][5][6] Voltaire used it of emptying a house (1764), and La Fontaine used it intransitively for “to change one's lodging” (1668), now the main sense; the Académie recorded “to leave a place under constraint” in 1694.^[2][9]

Figuratively the head or reason was said to move out: déménager la tête (1798) and déménager “to talk nonsense” (1808), said of a person from 1835.^[2][5] Familiar French also uses it for something that thrills or stirs up its audience.^[9][1] The derivatives déménageur (1852) and the Swiss déménageuse “removal van” (1881) appeared in the 19th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1262 – Desmanagier in Rutebeuf.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records desmenager “to move belongings”.^[2]
• 1668 – La Fontaine uses it intransitively, “to move house”.^[2][5]
• 1694 – The Académie records “to leave a place under constraint”.^[2]
• 1764 – Voltaire writes déménager une maison.^[2]
• 1798 – Déménager la tête “to lose one's reason”.^[2][5]
• 1852 – Déménageur is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To move (furniture and belongings) from one dwelling to another: déménager son piano.^[9][2][1]
2. (transitive) To empty (a room or a house) of its furniture.^[9][4]
3. (intransitive) To move house, change one's home: Ils déménagent en juin.^[9][1]
4. Déménager à la cloche de bois: to move out secretly without paying the rent.^[9][1]
5. (familiar) To leave a place;^[9] faire déménager quelqu'un is to drive someone out.^[9]
6. (familiar) To rave, to talk nonsense.^[9][2]
7. (familiar) To be thrilling, to rock.^[9][1]

Word family

• déménagement
• déménageur
• redéménager

Related words

• emménager
• ménage

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ 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 f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 192a
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert