deuil

Forms

deuil m (countable and uncountable, plural deuils)^[1] Old French dol (late 10th century), doel and duel (12th century), plural dueus; then dueil (1450) and doeil, and the modern form in 1658.^[2][3][4] In Old French the nominative was li dels, li dex or li diaux, the oblique le duel.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French duel, dol, inherited from Late Latin dolus (“pain”), a verbal noun from doleō (“to suffer pain”).^{[2][6][3][7][8]} That form, recorded until the 16th century, was remade into the modern word from its plural dueus, on the model of œil and its plural.^[2][6][7] The DHLF prefers this to a derivation from Late Latin dolium (“grief”), known in Classical Latin only in the compound cordolium, which would not account for the Old French forms;^[2][1] Wiktionary mentions it as a possibility.^[2][1]

Cognate with Old Occitan dol, Spanish duelo and Italian duolo.^[6][5] The Romance languages all kept the sense “pain”, and only Spanish shares the sense “mourning”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Léger (second half of the 10th century) has dol in the sense of affliction; the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) uses duel for grief at a death and dols for lamentations.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “affliction”, went out of use before the early 18th century, but it lies behind the literary sense of a gloomy aspect (about 1742).^[2][4] Already in Old French the word was narrowed to grief caused by a death (1050), and by metonymy it named the outward signs of that grief (1050), especially mourning clothes (about 1170, guarnemenz de dol).^[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg note that black mourning dress is recorded from the 5th century but seems to have spread only from the 14th.^[6]

From the 15th century it also meant the loss of a loved one, and since 1549 the period of mourning (Estienne, achever son dueil).^[2][4] Mener le deuil recalls the sense “funeral procession” (1606).^[2] The familiar faire son deuil de quelque chose “to give it up” is recorded in 1823, after passer son deuil (1595).^[4][2] Psychoanalysis took up le travail du deuil to translate Freud's German Trauer (1915).^[2][9] In slang, perhaps from a Lorraine adjective meaning “painful”, it meant trouble (1870) and danger (1896).^[2]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – Dol “affliction” in the Vie de saint Léger.^[4]
• c. 1050 – Duel for grief at a death, in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[4][2]
• c. 1170 – Guarnemenz de dol “mourning clothes”.^[4][2]
• 1450 – The spelling dueil.^[2]
• 1549 – Estienne records achever son dueil, the period of mourning.^[4]
• 1595 – Passer son deuil “to resign oneself”.^[4]
• 1606 – The sense “funeral procession”.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records deuil.^[4]
• 1758 – Demi-deuil is recorded.^[2]
• 1823 – Boiste records faire son deuil de.^[4][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. grief at the death of someone: un jour de deuil.^[9][4]
2. A bereavement, the death of a relative or friend.^[1][4]
3. mourning, its outward signs and the clothes worn: porter le deuil, être en deuil.^[9][4][7]
4. The period of mourning.^[4]
5. A funeral procession: conduire le deuil.^[1][2]
6. (psychoanalysis) Le travail du deuil: the process of coming to terms with a loss.^[9][2]
7. Faire son deuil de quelque chose (familiar): to give something up for lost.^[9][4]
8. (figurative, literary) A gloomy, sorrowful aspect: toute la ville semblait en deuil.^[9][5]

Word family

• endeuiller

Related words

• douleur
• douloir
• dol
• Latin doleō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 121a
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert