enceindre

Forms

enceindre^[1] Old French past participle ençaint;^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include ençaindre and enseindre.^[2][3]

Etymology

According to Bloch and Wartburg, the Grand Robert, the GLLF and Wiktionary, it is inherited from Latin incingō (“to gird about, surround”), formed from in- (“in”) and cingō (“to gird”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The TLFi and Rey instead see a remaking of the older aceindre (12th century), by a change of prefix after the Latin verb; the TLFi takes the older verb to be ceindre with a prefix added rather than the outcome of Latin accingō.^[2][8] Rey adds that in Latin the compound verb tended to replace the simple one.^[8]

Cognate with Italian incingere, Old Occitan encenher and Romanian încinge.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is the past participle ençaint in the Ovide moralisé at the start of the 14th century, meaning “surrounded”.^[2] The GLLF dates the verb to about 1280, in Bibbesworth, in the senses “to surround” and “to enclose”,^[6] and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from the early 13th century in the sense “to surround, encircle”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the Latin sense of putting something round a place, as a belt goes round a body.^[8][2] In Middle French it was used of a king surrounding Paris with walls,^[10] and Cotgrave glossed it in 1611 as “to gird, compass, environ, inclose”.^[11] The Académie recorded it in 1694 with ditches and palisades round a town.^[12] By the 18th century it applied also to things that enclose a space, such as trees round a piece of ground,^[5] and it came to mean, figuratively, to hold something within limits.^[2]

Today the verb is rare and lives on mainly through its past participle used as a noun, enceinte¹ “enclosure, surrounding wall”.^[8][13]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – The Anglo-Norman Dictionary's first record, “to surround, encircle”.^[3]
• c. 1280 – Bibbesworth uses it, by the GLLF's dating.^[6]
• 1284 – The noun aceinte, later enceinte¹, is used of what surrounds and protects a space.^[8]
• Early 14th century – Ençaint “surrounded” in the Ovide moralisé, the TLFi's first record.^[2]
• 1451 – La Sale uses enceindre of making a woman pregnant.^[10]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it “to gird, compass, environ”.^[11]
• 1694 – The Académie records it as “to surround, enclose”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (rare, literary) To surround a place with a wall, ditch or other enclosure: enceindre un parc d’un mur.^[5][13][6]
2. To enclose, to hold within certain limits; also figuratively.^[2][6]

Word family

• enceinte¹

Related words

• ceindre
• ceinture
• Latin incingō

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a rare second verb enceindre “to make (a woman) pregnant”, formed in the 20th century from the adjective enceinte² “pregnant” on the model of this verb, with an example from Aragon.^[5] The DMF already records enceindre une femme in this sense in 1451.^[10] Because of the adjective, the past participle enceinte of a town surrounded by walls is now old and rare when used alone.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 624a
8. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
11. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
12. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
13. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert