douloureux

Forms

douloureux (feminine douloureuse, masculine plural douloureux, feminine plural douloureuses)^[1] Old French dolerus, dulurus, doloros and dolereus;^[2][3][4] douloureus in the 13th century and douloureux in the 16th.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French doloros, inherited from Late Latin dolōrōsus (“painful”), an adjective formed on dolor (“pain”).^[5][6][3][7] Its form was remade after douleur, whose development it followed.^[5][6][3]

Cognate with Old Occitan doloros, Italian doloroso and Spanish doloroso.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1050, as dolerus, in the Vie de saint Alexis, of sorrowful messages; in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) duluruse, caitive means “grieving, wretched”.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both what causes pain or grief and the person who feels it; in Old French it was also a synonym of “miserable, unhappy”, a sense since lost.^[5][3][2] The sense “made sensitive by pain”, of a part of the body, is recorded about 1560 in Ambroise Paré.^[2]

As a noun, la douloureuse became a familiar name for the bill in a restaurant or hotel (1830).^[3] The English dolorous (about 1400) was borrowed from the Old French word.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Dolerus in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[5]
• c. 1100 – Duluruse “grieving” in the Chanson de Roland.^[5][4]
• 1170 – The adverb dolorosement, later douloureusement, is recorded.^[3]
• 16th century – The spelling douloureux appears.^[2]
• c. 1560 – Ambroise Paré uses it of a sore part of the body.^[2]
• 1830 – La douloureuse is used for the bill.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing physical pain, painful: une piqûre douloureuse.^[9][5][4]
2. Of a part of the body: sore, aching: Après la course, il avait les genoux douloureux.^[9][4][2]
3. Causing grief or moral suffering, distressing: une rupture douloureuse.^[9][4][2]
4. Expressing pain or grief: un regard douloureux.^[9][4]
5. (literary) Of a person or the soul: suffering, full of sorrow.^[2][5]

Noun

1. (familiar) La douloureuse: the bill in a restaurant or hotel.^[3][9]

Word family

• douloureusement

Related words

• douleur
• dolent
• doléance
• deuil
• Latin dolor
• English dolorous

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 e f g h i Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 120a
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert