entrant

Forms

entrant (feminine entrante, masculine plural entrants, feminine plural entrantes)^[1]

Etymology

It is the present participle from French entrer (“to enter”), used as an adjective and a noun.^[2][3][4][5] The verb continues Latin intrō (“to enter, penetrate”).^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The GLLF dates it to about 1130, in the Eneas;^[9][5] Rey also dates the noun to 1130.^[9][5] In Old French à l’entrant de meant “at the beginning of” a season or month, as in a 12th-century song by Couci and in Villehardouin (13th century), who has à l’entrant d’aoust.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French the noun meant both an entrance (a l’entrant de la porte, about 1354–1359) and a person who enters (nul des entrans ne des issans, 1351).^[11] Around 1400 Eustache Deschamps used it of a person easy of access, and in the 16th century Brantôme of someone forward in company.^[10][9]

From 1608, in Régnier, it meant pushy, insinuating, a sense of classical French that Rey calls peculiar to that period and the Académie now marks as dated.^[12][5][4] The adjective in its modern sense is dated 1690.^[5] Today the word is used mostly as a plural noun, opposed to the leavers (les entrants et les sortants), and in hospitals for a newly admitted patient, recorded by the TLFi in Aragon (1936).^[5][6][12]

Timeline

• c. 1130 – First record, in the Eneas.^[9]
• 13th century – Villehardouin writes à l’entrant d’aoust “at the beginning of August”.^[10]
• 1351 – Entrans is used of people entering a palace.^[11]
• c. 1400 – Eustache Deschamps uses the adjective of an approachable person.^[9][10]
• 1608 – Régnier uses it in the sense “pushy, insinuating”.^[12][5]
• 1690 – The adjective is recorded in its modern use.^[5]
• 1936 – Aragon uses it of a newly admitted hospital patient.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That enters, incoming: les étudiants entrants.^{[3][13][1][4]}
2. Taking up an office in turn, as opposed to sortant, as of ministers or councillors.^[3][10][4]
3. (technology) Placed at or arriving at the input of a device: le signal entrant.^[3]
4. (dated, figurative) insinuating, ingratiating: des manières entrantes.^[4][6][10]

Noun

1. A person who enters a place or a group; a newcomer or entrant: les entrants et les sortants.^{[3][13][4][1]}
2. (medicine) A patient newly admitted to a hospital ward.^[6][12]

Related words

• entrer
• entrée
• sortant
• Latin intrō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d 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
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 773a
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
12. ^ a b c d e Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
13. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)