drame

Forms

drame m (plural drames)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin drāma (“stage action, play”),^[2][3][4][1] first found in 1657 as a gallicized form of the Greek word.^[2][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek δρᾶμα (drâma, “action, play”),^[1][2] the action noun of δράω (dráō, “to do, to act”).^[3][5][6] Rey notes that the Greek verb has been compared, without proof, with Baltic forms such as Lithuanian daryti (“to do”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The abbé d'Aubignac uses it in 1657 in La Pratique du théâtre, as a French form of the Greek word for the stage action.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Absent from 17th-century dictionaries, it was used in 1696 for a play performed in the Jesuit colleges.^[3][2][4] Its spread in the 18th century went with a new kind of theatre: after serving as a general name for any stage play (Prévost, 1750), it named the drame bourgeois of Diderot, Beaumarchais and Sedaine (about 1760), which mixed the tragic with the realistic and familiar.^[3][2][4] With Hugo's preface to Cromwell (1827) and Hernani (1830) it became the romantic drama, then, from 1838, a play showing violent or painful action.^[3][2]

The figurative sense “a train of tragic events” is recorded from 1787 and appears in the title of Restif de la Bretonne's Le Drame de la vie (1793); journalism spread it in the sense of a disaster caused by a crime or accident.^[3][2]

Derivatives include dramatiser (1801) and later dédramatiser (1965).^[3][4] The adjective dramatique is an older, separate borrowing (1370–1371) from Late Latin dramaticus.^[3]

Timeline

• 1657 – The abbé d'Aubignac gallicizes the Greek word.^[2][3]
• 1696 – Used for a play staged in a Jesuit college.^[2]
• 1750 – The abbé Prévost uses it for any stage play.^[2][3]
• 1761 – Used of the tragédie bourgeoise.^[2]
• 1762 – Recorded by the Académie française.^[2]
• 1787 – First figurative use, “a train of tragic events”.^[2][3]
• 1801 – Dramatiser appears.^[3][4]
• 1838 – Hugo's preface to Ruy Blas uses it for a play of violent action.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literature, technical) The drama as a genre, all works written for the theatre, also (dated) a stage play.^[7][2]
2. Drame lyrique: an opera.^[7][2]
3. A play of serious, often tragic action mixed with realistic or familiar elements, and the genre it belongs to: le drame bourgeois, le drame romantique.^[7][8]
4. (figurative) A tragic event or train of events, a catastrophe: un drame passionnel, also a crime or accident as reported in the press: Les voisins ont assisté au drame.^[7][8][3]

Word family

• dramatiser
• mélodrame
• dédramatiser

Related words

• dramatique
• dramaturge
• drastique
• Ancient Greek δρᾶμα (drâma)

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 m n o p q 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 j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse