génération

Forms

génération f (plural générations)^[1] Old French generatiun (about 1120), remade in the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin generātiō (“begetting, reproduction”), which in Christian Latin also meant descent, offspring.^[4][3][5][6] The Latin noun is formed on the supine of generō (“to beget”).^[2][3][7] Picoche places it among the learned words of the family of the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *gen(e)- (“to beget, be born”).^[8] The sense used in linguistics was borrowed from the English word generation (recorded in 1959), itself of the same origin.^[4][3]

Compare Old Occitan generacio, Spanish generación and Italian generazione.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as generatiun in the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century), for all the people living at the same time, in the phrase translated “from generation to generation”.^[4][9][3]

Semantic evolution

Toward the end of the 12th century it also took the classical Latin sense of begetting, the function by which living beings reproduce.^[4][3] From about 1361 it also had the figurative sense of creation.^[4][3] The sense “sexual act” (1580) has gone out of use.^[3][5] From Christian Latin it took “descent, lineage” (early 15th century, after “tribe, family” in Joinville at the end of the 13th).^[3][5] It named each degree of descent in a direct line from 1511, and later (1564) the span of time between one degree and the next.^[3]

The sense of producing was specialized in geometry (1752) and, before Pasteur's work, in biology, with génération spontanée (1859).^[4][3] About 1970 it began to be used for each stage in a series of technical products, and about 1965 linguistics took a new sense from English.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Generatiun appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][4]
• late 12th century – It means begetting, procreation.^[4][3]
• 13th century – The form génération replaces generatiun.^[3][2]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini uses it for reproduction.^[5][9]
• 1511 – It names a degree of descent.^[3][10]
• 1564 – It names the time between two degrees of descent.^[3]
• 1752 – The geometrical sense is recorded in the Dictionnaire de Trévoux.^[4]
• 1859 – Génération spontanée is recorded.^[10][3]
• c. 1965 – Linguistics takes a new sense from English.^[3][4]
• c. 1970 – It is used for successive stages of technical products.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Reproduction, the function by which living beings produce new individuals: génération sexuée.^[10][7][1]
2. Génération spontanée: spontaneous generation, the old theory that some living things arise from matter alone.^[10]
3. (geometry) The production of a surface or solid by the movement of a line or figure.^[10]
4. All the descendants at one degree of descent: de génération en génération.^[10][1]
5. The span of time between two degrees of descent, about thirty years.^[10]
6. All the people of roughly the same age: la jeune génération.^[10][1]
7. (technology) Each stage in the development of a family of products: les téléphones de la dernière génération.^[10][3]
8. (linguistics) The production of sentences by a speaker.^[10][4]

Word family

• générationnel

Related words

• générer
• Latin generātiō
• English generation

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 98b
7. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
8. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert