Etymologically
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district

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 21:12. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /dis.tʁikt/[1]
  • IPA: /dis.tʁik/[1]

Forms

district m (plural districts)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin districtus (“territory, outskirts”),[2][3][4][5] from “districtum”, the supine of Latin distringō (“to hold back, constrain”), itself from stringō (“to bind tight”).[2][3][6] The learned word replaced the inherited form “destroit” “extent of a jurisdiction” (1235), still used in this sense by La Fontaine; the same word survives as détroit “strait”.[2][3][4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1421, and the TLFi to 1480, in an ordinance, in the sense “jurisdiction, area over which a judge has authority”.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In this sense the word went out of use in France after the Académie's 1798 edition (un juge ne peut juger hors de son district), as did the figurative ne pas être de mon district “not my concern” (Mme de Sévigné, before 1696).[3][2] The sense “limited territory” appears in Cotgrave (1611) and spread from 1780 (Raynal);[2][3] the decree of 12 November 1789 made the district a subdivision of the new departments, roughly the later arrondissement, abolished in 1795.[2][3][7]

In modern France a district urbain (1959) is a grouping of communes forming one urban area.[3][6] The phrase district fédéral, for the territory of a federal capital such as Washington, is a calque of English;[3] in Switzerland a district is a subdivision of a canton.[8]

Timeline

  • 1235 – Destroit “jurisdiction”.[2]
  • 1421 – District.[4]
  • 1480 – “Jurisdiction”, in an ordinance.[2]
  • 1611 – “Limited territory”, in Cotgrave.[2]
  • 1789 – A subdivision of the French department.[2]
  • 1959 – District urbain.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A district, administrative subdivision (of a country, a Swiss canton).[8][7]
  2. (France) District urbain: a grouping of neighbouring communes.[6][7]
  3. (history) A subdivision of a French department (1790–1795).[6][8]
  4. (obsolete) The extent of a jurisdiction.[6][2]

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 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 i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 101a
  6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)