féal

Forms

féal (feminine féale, masculine plural féaux, feminine plural féales)^[1] Old French feeil, feel and feal.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French feal, inherited from Latin fidēlis (“faithful, loyal”).^[2][5][6][1] The regular Old French outcome of the Latin word was feeil (about 1100), and the later form replaced its ending ⟨-eil⟩ with the suffix ⟨-al⟩.^[2][5][1] The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and the GLLF derive it instead from fei, the old form of foi.^[7][8][3] It is a doublet of fidèle, borrowed from the same Latin word.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1160 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure, as the noun feel “loyal subject and friend”.^[3][7] The adjective, spelled feaus, appears at the end of the 12th century in a version of the Song of Songs.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective meant “true to one's sworn faith”, above all to an overlord.^[5][2] Froissart in the 15th century and Montaigne in the 16th still used it freely (mes amis les plus feaux).^[4] By the 17th century it was already an old word, kept in the formula of royal letters à nos amés et féaux conseillers “to our beloved and loyal councillors”.^[3][4][8] Chateaubriand used the formula ironically, and 19th-century writers revived the adjective for loyal knights and for a fief held of a lord.^[3][2]

The noun is literary or playful today: a devoted follower or a faithful companion, as in Rimbaud's Muse ! et j'étais ton féal.^[5][8] Littré already gave the familiar use c'est mon féal for a devoted friend.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses the noun feel for a loyal subject.^[3]
• late 12th century – The adjective feaus is recorded.^[2][5]
• 16th century – Montaigne writes of mes amis les plus feaux.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records the adjective in the sense “loyal to an overlord”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (historical) loyal to an overlord or sovereign; in royal letters amés et féaux.^[2][8][4]
2. (literary) Faithful to one's sworn word, true.^[3][8]
3. (historical) Of a property: held as a fief.^[2]

Noun

1. (literary or humorous) A devoted follower or faithful friend: mon féal.^[8][2][4]

Related words

• fidèle
• foi
• Latin fidēlis

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 502b
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert