département

Forms

département m (plural départements)^[1] Old French departemenz (plural, early 12th century), departement.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French departement, formed from Old French departir (“to divide, share out”) + -ment.^[2][4][5][1] The Grand Robert explains the ending ⟨-ement⟩ by the influence of verbs of the first conjugation.^[5] departir is itself formed from partir in its old sense “to divide”, with the prefix dé-.^[2][1]

Littré compares Old Occitan departiment and Italian dipartimento.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Oxford Psalter, early in the 12th century, has departemenz for “scattered parts”, translating Latin dispersiones; the GLLF reads it as a group of people cut off from its nation.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word was the noun of action of départir, “a sharing out” (about 1180), still in use at the beginning of the 17th century; in Old and Middle French it also meant a departure.^[2][4][3] By metonymy it named the things shared out, especially land (late 14th century, Froissart), and in 1570 Carloix speaks of giving each marshal of France a departement of the provinces.^[2][4][3]

From there it took the abstract sense of the part of the administration assigned to a minister, someone's remit (1680, Richelet), and the concrete sense of an administrative division of France (1765, d'Argenson).^[2][4][6] The Revolution gave it its present value, the new departments being created by a decree of 22 December 1789.^[4][6] Furetière (1690) also used it of rooms of a house allotted to someone.^[2][6] In Swiss French it names a federal or cantonal ministry, and under English influence it is used for a section of a library, a large store or a company, a usual sense in Quebec.^[4][7]

English department (about 1500) comes from Old French departement.^[8]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – The Oxford Psalter has departemenz.^[2][4]
• About 1180 – It means “a sharing out”.^[2][5][4]
• Late 14th century – Froissart uses it of shares of land.^[2][4]
• 1680 – Richelet records the minister's department.^[2][4]
• 1690 – Furetière records rooms allotted to someone.^[2][6]
• 1765 – D'Argenson uses it for an administrative division of France.^[2][4][7]
• 1789 – A decree of 22 December creates the French departments.^[6]
• 1790 – The derivative départemental appears.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A branch of government in the charge of a minister, a ministry.^[7]
2. A unit of an organization responsible for one field: le département de chimie de l'université.^[7][4]
3. An administrative division of the French territory under a prefect, with an elected council.^[7][1]
4. An administrative division of certain other countries; in Switzerland, a branch of the federal or cantonal executive.^[7][4]
5. Département d'État: the US State Department.^[7]

Word family

• départemental
• départementaliser
• départementalisation

Related words

• départir
• partir
• English department

References

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