empreindre

Forms

empreindre^[1] Old French past participle emprient (13th century); Anglo-Norman also enpreindre and enpriendre.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *impremō, an alteration of Latin imprimō (“to press upon, to imprint”) remade on the simple verb premō (“to press”).^[5][3][6][7] The TLFi derives it directly from the Classical Latin verb.^[8] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF explain the ending by an older verb *empriembre (compare emprient in the 13th century), altered after verbs such as craindre.^[3][7] Littré holds instead that the Latin verb, stressed on its second syllable, gives the French form regularly.^[2] The same Latin verb was later borrowed as imprimer.^[1][2] Bloch and Wartburg note that it was partly confused with imprégner.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1213 in the Faits des Romains, for pressing the shape of a hard body into a softer material.^[8][7] The figurative use appears in the second half of the 13th century, in a fabliau manuscript where a heart feels love emprient in it.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the Latin sense of marking a form by pressure on a surface and, from the 13th century, was used figuratively in a literary register.^[5] Montaigne writes of the rules of reason that nature has empreintes en nous.^[2] It is now little used except in the infinitive and the past participle.^[3] Its past participle used as a noun, empreinte, is the common word for a mark left by pressure.^[5]

Timeline

• 1213 – Empreindre in the Faits des Romains.^[8]
• 2nd half of the 13th century – First figurative use.^[8][5]
• 14th century – Machaut writes empraint.^[2]
• 1905 – Empreinte digitale “fingerprint” appears.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (rare) To imprint a shape or design on a surface by pressing.^[9][8]
2. (figurative, literary) To mark, to imbue.^[9][1]
3. S'empreindre: to bear the mark of something, to become imbued with it.^[9][2]

Word family

• empreint
• empreinte

Related words

• imprimer
• presser
• Latin imprimō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f 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
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert