février

Forms

février m (plural févriers)^[1] Middle French spellings include fevrier and febvrier.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fevrier, inherited from Late Latin febrārius, a Late Latin form of Latin februārius (“February, month of purification”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin month, the last of the old Roman year, was named for the rites of purification held in it.^[5][7] The sources name its base differently: the TLFi derives it from februō (“to purify”),^[3] the Grand Robert from februum (“a means of purification”),^[7] and Rey from the religious adjective februus (“purifying”), perhaps related to febris (“fever”).^[5] Littré, citing Varro, calls the verb Sabine and rejects a link with the word for fever.^[8]

Cognate with Italian febbraio, Old Occitan febrier, Catalan febrer, Spanish febrero and Portuguese fevereiro.^[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1119 in Philippe de Thaon's Comput, a treatise on the calendar, naming the month of February.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense, the second month of the year.^[5][9] In the French Republican calendar February was split between pluviôse and ventôse.^[5][9] 16th-century proverbs dwell on its cold and snow, such as Fevrier entre tous les mois, Le plus court et le moins courtois “February, of all the months, the shortest and least courteous”.^[8] With a capital it names the revolution of February 1848, la révolution de Février.^[10]

Timeline

• 1119 – First recorded in Philippe de Thaon's Comput.^[3]
• 13th century – Fevereth appears in the Chronique de Reims.^[8]
• 16th century – Marot writes of fevrier le froidureux “cold February”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. February, the second month of the year, with 28 days, or 29 in leap years.^[9][3]

Related words

• fièvre
• Latin februārius

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
3. ^ a b c d e 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
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 442a
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF