frustrer

Forms

frustrer^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin frūstrō (“to deceive, disappoint”), also used as the deponent frūstror.^[2][3][4][1] The TLFi dates the borrowing to about 1380, while Rey, Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert give 1330.^[2][5][3][4] The Latin verb meant “to make vain” as well as “to deceive”, and comes from the adverb frūstrā (“in vain”), common in phrases meaning “to be deceived” and “to deceive”.^[5] The origin of the adverb is obscure; the Romans themselves connected it with fraus (“deceit”), the source of fraude.^[5]

Littré compares Old Occitan frustar and frustrar.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is in Jean Le Fèvre's translation of La Vieille (about 1380); the first sense is to deprive someone of a good or advantage that was due to them.^[2][5][7]

Semantic evolution

In 15th-century chronicles quoted by Littré, houses are frustrées et pillées, stripped of their goods.^[6] The verb soon also took an object such as l'attente or l'espoir: Calvin writes of not frustrating the expectation of one's own people, and La Noue of a man frustré de son attente.^[6] From the end of the 17th century it meant, by extension, to fail to meet an expectation, a sense the GLLF finds in Bossuet.^[5][7]

Through psychoanalysis the verb took, in the mid-20th century, the sense now usual: to put someone in a state of frustration, of unsatisfied desire.^[5] The participle frustré and the adjectives frustrant (1967) and frustrateur began as terms of psychoanalysis and passed into everyday use.^[5] The Anglo-Norman frustrer “to frustrate, deny, prevent” is recorded from 1419.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – Jean Le Fèvre's translation of La Vieille uses the verb.^[2]
• 1419 – The Anglo-Norman form frustrer is recorded.^[8]
• Late 17th century – It is used of a hope or expectation left unmet.^[5][7]
• Mid-20th century – Psychoanalysis gives it the sense “to cause frustration”.^[5]
• 1967 – The adjective frustrant appears.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deprive someone of something due to them or of an advantage they expected (frustrer qqn de qqc.): frustrer une sœur de sa part d'héritage.^[9][2][7]
2. To deprive someone of a satisfaction they hoped for.^[9][7]
3. To disappoint, fail to meet a hope or expectation: frustrer l'espoir de ses électeurs.^[9][6]
4. To put someone in a state of frustration: ce refus l'a frustrée.^[9][5]
5. Se frustrer (rare): to deprive oneself.^[6]

Word family

• frustrant
• frustrateur

Related words

• frustration
• frustré
• frustratoire
• Latin frūstrā

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert