Etymologically
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gagner

Etymology and origin of the French word gagner

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1130, Eneas
Inherited from
Old French gaaignier
Ultimate origin
Frankish (*waidanjan)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɡa.ɲe/[1]
  • IPA: /ɡɑ.ɲe/[1]

Forms

gagner[1] Old French guaaignier (about 1130), Old French gaaignier (about 1135), gaigner (13th century), gagner (16th century).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French gaaignier, from Frankish *waidanjan (“to get food, to take booty”),[3][4][5][6] probably at first “to graze cattle”, a sense kept by German Weide (“pasture”); Old High German weida meant both “search for food by hunting or fishing” and “pasture”.[4][5][7] Wiktionary gives Vulgar Latin “*wadaniāre”, from Frankish “*waiþanōn”.[1] Among farmers and herdsmen the meaning moved to “to work the land” and then “to make a profit from work”, and the word displaced Latin “lucrari”.[7]

Other invaders brought it to the south: Italian guadagnare, Old Occitan guazanhar, Catalan guanyar, Portuguese ganhar, Spanish guadañar (“to mow”).[5][8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Eneas (about 1130) has guaaignier “to cultivate, plough”;[2] the Couronnement de Louis (about 1135) has it for making a profit by work, conquering by force and winning a battle.[3]

Semantic evolution

The rural senses “to graze” (in hunting) and “to cultivate” (1155) have gone from standard French but survive in the south-east and Franco-Provençal, as do gagnage and regain.[5][4] The verb soon meant gaining by gambling or luck (early 13th century), winning a game (about 1223) and a lawsuit (1283), and winning someone over (Jean de Meun, gaaignier un ami, 1269–1278); in the classical period it meant winning a woman's hand (1636).[3][4]

From “to obtain” it passed to “to reach”: gaigner pays “to make headway” (about 1525), gaigner le hault “to run away” (1548), gagner du terrain (1646), gagner qqn de vitesse (1762), and of sleep or hunger, to come over someone (1587).[3][4] Bèze noted in the 16th century that the purer speakers said gagner, not gaigner.[9] Derivatives include gain (12th century), gagne-pain (13th century, a gauntlet; modern sense 1566) and gagne-petit (1597).[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1130 – Guaaignier “to cultivate”.[2]
  • c. 1135 – To profit, conquer, win a battle.[3]
  • 12th century – Gain.[5]
  • c. 1223 – Gaaignier le giu.[3]
  • 1269–1278 – Gaaignier un ami.[3]
  • 1283 – To win a lawsuit.[3]
  • 1548 – Gaigner le hault.[3]
  • 1566 – Gagne-pain in its modern sense.[5]
  • 1646 – Gagner du terrain.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To earn: gagner de l'argent, gagner sa vie.[7][1]
  2. To win: gagner une bataille, un procès, au loto, (intransitive) to win.[7][10]
  3. To gain, obtain: gagner du temps, gagner du terrain, gagner la confiance de qqn.[7][1]
  4. To win over: gagner qqn à sa cause.[7][2]
  5. To reach: gagner la sortie, la côte.[1][7]
  6. To spread to, overcome: le feu gagne le toit, le sommeil le gagnait.[7][3]

Word family

  • gagnable
  • regagner
  • gagnage
  • gain
  • gagne-pain
  • gagne-petit
  • gain
  • gagnant
  • gagneur
  • regagner
  • gagne-pain
  • gagne-petit
  • regain

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Gagner.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/gagner. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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