Etymologically
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gêner

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʒɛ.ne/[1]
  • IPA: /ʒe.ne/[1]

Forms

gêner[1] Middle French gehenner (1363, still in the 17th century), gehiner (1381), jehisner, gesner from the 16th to the 18th century, gêner from 1530.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from French gêne + -er.[2][3][5][1] The noun gêne is a Renaissance remaking (1538) of gehenne (1390), itself Old French gehine (“torture to extract a confession”) (about 1200) altered under the influence of géhenne (“Gehenna, hell”).[2][6] That noun was formed from the Old French verb gehir (“to confess”) (early 12th century), which goes back to Frankish *jehhjan (“to say, confess”), compare Old High German jehan (“to confess”).[2][6][5] Pierre Guiraud proposed instead a Latin *jacina (“bed (of torture)”) from Latin iaceō (“to lie”), with the Old French verb a crossing of the Frankish and Latin verbs, Rey reports the idea.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense was physical torture: jehisner “to confess under torture” (second half of the 14th century) and gehenner “to put to the torture” (1363, in the inventories of the Dukes of Burgundy).[2]

Semantic evolution

Like the noun, the verb kept strong meanings until the end of the 17th century: “to torment morally” (gehainer, 1515), “to cause physical discomfort, cramp” (Ronsard, 1569), “to hamper, constrain” (Du Bellay, 1549) and “to impose a moral constraint” (Ronsard, 1565).[2][5] Racine's Ah ! que vous me gênez ! still means “how you torment me”.[7] The modern weak sense “to embarrass, make ill at ease” is found in Saint-Évremond (before 1703), and être gêné “to be short of money” in 1768.[2] The derivative gêneur is recorded in 1868.[5]

Timeline

  • 1363 – Gehenner “to torture”.[2]
  • 1381 – Gehiner.[3][4]
  • 1515 – “To torment morally”.[2]
  • 1530 – The spelling gêner, Palsgrave.[3]
  • 1549 – “To hamper, constrain”, Du Bellay.[2]
  • 1569 – “To cause physical discomfort”, Ronsard.[2]
  • Before 1703 – “To embarrass”, Saint-Évremond.[2]
  • 1768 – Être gêné “to be hard up”.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (obsolete) To torture; to torment.[7][4]
  2. To cause physical discomfort to, cramp: ces souliers me gênent.[7]
  3. To hinder, hamper, get in the way of: gêner la circulation.[7][1]
  4. To bother, inconvenience: est-ce que la fumée vous gêne ?[7][1]
  5. To embarrass, make ill at ease.[2][1]
  6. To put in financial difficulty, être gêné, to be short of money.[2][4]
  7. Se gêner: to put oneself out, ne pas se gêner, to make free.[1][7]

Word family

  • gênant
  • gêneur
  • gêne
  • sans-gêne

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert