Etymology and origin of the French word ester
ester1 to bring or defend a lawsuit
Etymology tree of ester1
From the same root · ester1
Pronunciation
- /ɛs.te/[1]
Forms
ester (defective)[1]
Etymology
The word for appearing in court is borrowed from Medieval Latin stō (“to maintain an action at law”), a legal specialisation of the classical sense “to stand”.[2][3][4][5] That classical sense had already given Old French ester (“to stay, remain, stand”), recorded from the second half of the 10th century in the Life of Saint Leger.[2][3][5] Wiktionary instead treats the legal verb as the Old French verb inherited from Latin, with a pronunciation shaped by its spelling and its senses by Medieval Latin legal use.[1][6]
Cognate with Italian stare, Old Occitan estar, Spanish estar and Portuguese estar.[7][8] Rey links the Latin verb to the Indo-European root of standing, also seen in Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis) and English stand.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The legal use first appears in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's Vie de saint Thomas (1174–1176) in the phrase ester a dreit, “to appear before a court”.[2][3] The older verb meant “to stand” or “to stay”: Littré quotes the Chanson de Roland Au camp estez, que ne seions vaincuz (“stand firm on the field, so that we are not beaten”).[7][9]
Semantic evolution
In Old French ester was a common verb meaning to stand, to stand still or to remain, with the legal phrase ester a dreit “to appear before a court” beside it.[3][10][7] The everyday verb went out of use, and only the legal term survived, in the infinitive alone.[3][4]
From 1384 it is found in ester en justice and ester en jugement, “to bring or defend an action at law”, the only uses left today.[3][9][5] Littré also records ester à droit, “to appear before the judge when summoned”, as a term of the old criminal procedure.[7]
Timeline
- 2nd half of the 10th century – Old French ester “to stand, to remain” appears in the Vie de saint Léger.[2][3]
- c. 1080 – The Chanson de Roland uses ester for standing firm.[9][7]
- 1174–1176 – Ester a dreit “to appear before a court” in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.[2][3]
- 1384 – Ester en jugement, ester en justice are first recorded.[3][9][5]
- 1804 – The Civil Code rules that a wife may not ester en jugement without her husband's authorisation.[2]
Meanings
Verb
- (law) Ester en justice, ester en jugement: to bring or defend an action at law, as plaintiff or defendant; used only in the infinitive: Une association déclarée peut ester en justice.[2][11][5]
- (old law) Ester à droit: to appear before the judge in answer to a summons.[7]
- (archaic) To be, to stand.[1]
ester2 chemical compound
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1857 Blanche
- Borrowed from
- German Ester
Pronunciation
- /ɛs.tɛʁ/[1]
Forms
ester m (plural esters)[1]
Etymology
The chemical term is borrowed from German Ester, a word made by the German chemist Leopold Gmelin, about 1848–1850.[9][11][3][12] The TLFi and the DHLF see in it a contraction of Essigäther (“acetic ether”), formed from Essig (“vinegar”) and Äther (“ether”), a word Gmelin used in his handbook of chemistry of 1848;[2][3][1] Etymonline calls the contraction only a possibility.[12] The Robert dictionaries connect it with éther.[9][11]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first recorded in 1857, in Blanche, for an organic compound of an acid and an alcohol.[2][9]
Semantic evolution
The word spread only in the 20th century; such compounds had earlier been called éther or éther-sel.[3][9][2] It then gave the verb estérifier (1959) and estérification (1953), on the model of English esterify and esterification.[2] In English the chemical word is dated from 1852.[12]
Timeline
- 1848 – Gmelin uses the German name in his Handbuch der Chemie.[2][3]
- 1852 – The word is recorded in English.[12]
- 1857 – First record of French ester, in Blanche.[2][9]
- 1953 – Estérification appears in a Larousse supplement.[2]
- 1959 – Estérifier is recorded.[2]
Meanings
Noun
- (chemistry) An ester, an organic compound formed by the reaction of an acid with an alcohol or a phenol, with the loss of water.[2][11][5]
Word family
- estérifier
- estérification
- polyester
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 237a
- ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
- ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
Related etymologies
- sabre · also from German
- chic · also from German
- cale · also from German
- morphologie · also from German
- bock · also from German
- linguistique · also from German
- statistique · also from German
- halte · also from German
Cite this entry
“Ester.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/ester. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.
Last edited on . ·