démence

Forms

démence f (plural démences)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēmentia (“madness, folly”), recorded in French in 1381.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is formed from dēmēns (“out of one's mind”), made of the privative prefix dē- and mēns (“mind, intelligence”).^[2][1][5] It is related to the adjective dément.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in a poem on the Great Schism dated 1381, uses it for insanity, loss of reason.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Like the adjective dément, the noun was rare from the 15th to the 17th century; from about 1700 it came into common use in the wider sense of extravagant, senseless conduct, recorded in the Trévoux dictionary in 1704.^[3][2] It spread further in the 19th century, when psychiatry first used it loosely as a near-synonym of folie and then gave it a narrower meaning, first in démence sénile.^[3] In psychiatry it now names an acquired, progressive and irreversible decline of the mental faculties, a sense far from the everyday one.^[3][2] The adjective démentiel, derived from it in 1883, followed the same path.^[3]

Timeline

• 1381 – First recorded, meaning insanity.^[2][5]
• 1704 – The Trévoux dictionary records the sense “extravagant conduct”.^[2][3]
• 1883 – The derived adjective démentiel appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Madness, serious mental illness: sombrer dans la démence.^[7][8]
2. (by extension) Extravagant, senseless conduct: C'est de la démence de partir par ce temps !^[7][8][2]
3. (psychiatry) dementia, a progressive and irreversible decline of the mental faculties: démence sénile.^[7][2]
4. (dated) Démence précoce: a group of severe mental disorders beginning in adolescence, now called schizophrénie.^[7]
5. (law) A mental disorder serious enough to remove a person's responsibility for their acts.^[2]

Word family

• démentiel

Related words

• dément
• Latin dēmentia

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 37b
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse