dortoir

Forms

dortoir m (plural dortoirs)^[1] Old French dortor (13th century) and dortour, later dortouer (Joinville).^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French dortour, inherited from Ecclesiastical Latin dormītōrium (“dormitory”), which already meant “bedroom” in imperial Latin; it was formed on dormītum, the supine of dormiō (“to sleep”).^[3][4][1][5] Because the word first named the common bedrooms of monasteries, many Romance languages have forms remade on the Latin, such as Spanish dormitorio.^[6] The same Latin word was later borrowed as dormitoire, a doublet.^[1]

Cognate with Italian dormitorio and Occitan dormidor.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Raoul de Cambrai (late 12th century), in the sense it had in Christian Latin, a common sleeping room.^[3][4] Littré quotes the line in which a lady is hidden in the dortoir.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its sense of a large room with many beds in a monastery, a school or a barracks.^[4][7] About 1955 it took on a pejorative sense in apposition, a place whose people are at home only at night and work elsewhere, as in cité-dortoir, ville-dortoir and banlieue-dortoir.^[4][7]

Timeline

• late 12th century – First record in Raoul de Cambrai.^[3]
• 13th century – Rutebeuf has the form dortor.^[2]
• 13th century – Joinville writes dortouer.^[2]
• c. 1955 – Cité-dortoir and ville-dortoir appear.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dormitory, a large common room with several beds, in a monastery, school, barracks or hostel.^[7][3]
2. (in apposition) Of a town or suburb whose inhabitants work elsewhere during the day: cité-dortoir, ville-dortoir.^[7][4]

Related words

• dormir
• dormitoire
• Latin dormītōrium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 143b
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert