docteur

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɔk.tœʁ/^[1]

Forms

docteur m (plural docteurs, feminine docteur or (especially Canada) docteure or (dated) doctoresse or (slang) docteuse or (rare) doctrice)^[1] First written doctor, adapted as docteur by 1350.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin doctor (“teacher”), an agent noun from doceō (“to teach”); in Christian Latin it meant a doctor of the Law, a priest who teaches the faith, and also a physician.^{[3][2][4][5][6]} The Petit Robert connects “doceō” with Ancient Greek δοκεῖν (dokeîn, “to seem; to think”) and δόγμα (dógma, “opinion”).^[7]

Compare Romanian doctor, Italian dottore, Spanish doctor, Portuguese doutor and German Doktor.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As doctor it is found in the mid-12th century, in a Roman d'Alexandre, meaning a learned man.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence (1174–1176) uses it in religion, of a theologian teaching the truths of Christianity.^[3][2] About 1350 it became a university degree (docteurs en decrés, in canon law), and at the end of the 15th century docteur en médecine appears.^[3][2] From this it slid to its dominant modern sense, “physician”: the form of address docteur is found in 1767 and in Beaumarchais (1775).^[8][3] Bloch and Wartburg explain its spread in the 19th century by the doctors' wish to stress their title at a time when the lesser grade of officier de santé still existed.^[5]

Familiar doc (about 1950) owes something to American English.^[2] The feminine doctoresse meant a learned woman (15th century), a doctor's wife (1773) and a woman doctor (1855); in Quebec docteure is used.^[2]

Timeline

• mid-12th century – Doctor “learned man”.^[3]
• 1174–1176 – A teacher of religion, in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.^[3]
• c. 1350 – A university degree.^[3][2]
• late 15th century – Docteur en médecine.^[3]
• 1767 – Docteur as a form of address to a physician.^[8]
• 1855 – Doctoresse “woman doctor”.^[2]
• c. 1950 – Familiar doc.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doctor, physician: appeler le docteur.^[9][1]
2. A form of address to a physician: bonjour, docteur.^[8][9]
3. A holder of a doctorate: docteur ès lettres, docteur en droit.^[9]
4. (religion) Les docteurs de la Loi, les docteurs de l'Église, the great theologians of the Church.^[7][10]
5. (dated) A learned man, (pejorative) a pedant.^[7]
6. (papermaking) A doctor blade.^[9]

Word family

• doctoral
• doctoresse

Related words

• doctorat
• médecin
• physicien
• docte
• Latin doctor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 112a
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 c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)