effronté

Forms

effronté (feminine effrontée, masculine plural effrontés, feminine plural effrontées)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French é- + front + -é, properly “without a forehead (to blush with)”, the forehead standing for the seat of feeling.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The prefix é- has a privative value here, as Latin ex-.^[3] The TLFi compares Late Latin effrons (“shameless”),^[2] from which Etymonline derives the Old French adjective.^[7] front is from Latin frons (“forehead”).^[8]

Old French also had a verb esfronter “to strike on the forehead”, used by Chrétien de Troyes in his Perceval, and figuratively “to disconcert”.^[2][9] Littré compares Old Occitan esfrontat and Italian sfrontato.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as esfrontez in Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose (1275–1280), meaning “shameless, impudent”.^[2][10][4] The TLFi notes an earlier affronté “impudent” in Gautier de Coinci about 1220, and the adverb effronteyement appears in the Old French sermons of Saint Bernard at the end of the 12th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of a person who is ashamed of nothing, and especially one who displays free manners without shame, whence the shade “licentious”.^[5] From 1597 (Mathurin Régnier) it is also said of things that show this impudence, such as a look or a lie.^[3] Rotrou used it as a noun in 1632.^[3] By extension it means bold or impertinent rather than shameless, and it is said of animals such as sparrows.^[2]

The derivatives effrontément and effronterie (mid-14th century, enfronterie) belong to the same history; the DHLF notes that the whole group has become less common in modern French.^[5] English effrontery (1715) was taken from effronterie.^[7]

Timeline

• 1275–1280 – Esfrontez in Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose.^[2]
• mid-14th century – The noun enfronterie, later effronterie.^[5]
• 1597 – Mathurin Régnier applies it to things.^[3]
• 1632 – First used as a noun, by Rotrou.^[3]
• 1715 – English effrontery is borrowed from effronterie.^[7]
• 1835 – The Académie records effronté comme un page.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Shameless, impudent, behaving without respect or restraint, as in Une gamine effrontée.^[2][4][1]
2. Of a look, manner, words or acts: showing such impudence, bold and cheeky, as in Une réponse effrontée.^[2][3]
3. Of an animal: bold, unafraid.^[2] Effronté comme un moineau: very bold.^[2][3][9]
4. Effronté comme un page (de cour): bold to the point of insolence.^[2][9]

Noun

1. An impudent person, as in Petite effrontée !^[2][4]

Word family

• effrontément
• effronterie

Related words

• front
• affronter
• affront
• Latin frons
• English effrontery

Usage notes

Littré records two old nouns: effrontés, a 16th-century sect that denied the personhood of the Holy Spirit, and effrontée, an old style of women's headdress.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 820a
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert