dîme

Forms

dîme f (plural dîmes)^[1] Old French disme, diesme and dixme; the spelling dîme dates from the 17th century.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French disme, inherited from Latin decima (“tenth part”) (with pars (“part”) understood), the feminine of decimus (“tenth”), from decem (“ten”).^[2][4][3] Bloch and Wartburg note that in republican Rome the Latin word already named a tax of a tenth of the produce, levied on landowners in the conquered provinces.^[5] The same Latin word was later borrowed as décime.^[4][1] Old French also had an adjective of the same form meaning “tenth” (from 1080 to the 14th century).^[4][2]

Cognate with Italian decima, Old Occitan desma, Catalan delme and Spanish diezmo.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as a masculine noun, disme “the tenth”, in the Couronnement de Louis (about 1135); Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–1174) has the feminine diesme, a tenth of a troop.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The noun soon took the sense it had in medieval law, the tenth part of the harvest paid to the Church or to the lord, first recorded in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's Saint Thomas (1174–1176).^[2][4] From about 1450 it is also a biblical term for the tenth of the harvest the Jews offered to God or gave to the Levites, which gave the modern tax an ancient foundation.^[4][2]

After the tithe was abolished in 1789, the word survived in the figurative phrase lever la dîme sur “to take an unauthorized cut of” (1836); Boiste had defined it as an illegal levy in 1829.^[4][2] In Quebec French dîme names the sum Catholics pay to their parish, which in France is called the denier du culte.^[4][7] The old derivatives dîmer “to levy the tithe” (12th century) and dîmeur “tithe collector” (1174–1178) are now historical terms.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1135 – Masculine disme “the tenth” in the Couronnement de Louis.^[2]
• 1160–1174 – Feminine diesme in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[2]
• 1174–1176 – Disme as the tithe paid to the Church, in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.^[2]
• 1174–1178 – The derivative desmëor “tithe collector” appears.^[2]
• c. 1450 – Used of the Jewish tithe in the Mystère du Viel Testament.^[2][4]
• 1829 – Boiste defines it as an illegal levy.^[2]
• 1836 – Lever la dîme “to take an unauthorized cut” in Béranger.^[2][4]
• 1946 – The Quebec sense of a parish contribution is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) A tithe: under the Ancien Régime, a share of the harvest, often a tenth, paid to the Church or to the lord.^[2][7][3]
2. (history) Among the Jews, the tenth of the harvest offered to God or given to the Levites.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) Lever or prélever une dîme sur something: to take an improper share of it.^[7][4]
4. (Quebec) The yearly sum Catholics pay to their parish for the upkeep of worship.^[7][4]

Word family

• dîmer
• dîmeur

Related words

• décime
• dix
• Latin decima

References

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