Etymologically
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genre

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʒɑ̃ʁ/[1]
  • IPA: /ʒɔʁ/[1]

Forms

genre m (plural genres)[1] Old French gendre (1121–1134), used until the 16th century, genre from about 1200; also gerre (Jean Marot).[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin genus (“birth, descent; race; kind, sort”) (genitive “generis”),[2][3][6][7] which covered all the senses of the Old French word; in philosophy, after Greek, “genus” was opposed to “species” (see espèce).[2][3] The Latin word comes from “gignere” “to beget”, from the Indo-European root “*gen(e)-” of Ancient Greek γίγνομαι (gígnomai, “to be born, become”) (see gène, genèse).[3] The Old French form “gendre” is probably due to the verb “gendrer” “to beget”, from Latin “generare”.[2][3]

English genre (1770) is from the modern word,[8] and the Anglo-Norman “gendre” corresponds to English gender;[9] the sense “gender (identity)” is in turn a borrowing of meaning from English.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134) has gendre in the everyday sense “kind, type”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

About 1200 it meant “sex” (rendering Latin sexus), a sense lost since, and about 1245 a grammatical gender (Henri d'Andeli).[2][3] Humaine genre appears in the early 13th century and le genre humain in Montaigne (1580).[2][10] About 1300 it was a philosophical term for the general idea of a group of things with common characteristics, and, from the mid-18th century (Buffon) the rank of classification above the species.[2][3][10]

The sense “sort, kind” spread about 1400 (en son genre, 1690, genre de vie, 1690).[6][3] Racan (1654) used it for a category of literary works, later of paintings (peinture de genre, 1765, Diderot) and music.[2][3][10] From 1835 it also meant a manner of behaving (bon, mauvais genre, se donner un genre, 1845), and in modern colloquial French genre is a filler, “like, sort of”.[3][1]

Timeline

  • 1121–1134 – Gendre “kind” in Philippe de Thaon.[2]
  • c. 1200 – “Sex”.[2]
  • c. 1245 – Grammatical gender.[2]
  • Early 13th century – Humaine genre.[2]
  • c. 1300 – A philosophical term.[2]
  • 1654 – A literary genre, in Racan.[2]
  • 1765 – Peinture de genre in Diderot.[10]
  • 1770 – English genre.[8]
  • 1798 – Sous-genre in Cuvier.[3]
  • 1845 – Se donner un genre.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A kind, sort, type: un genre de vie, unique en son genre.[1][3]
  2. A genre (in art, literature): le genre romanesque, peinture de genre.[1][10]
  3. Style, manner; behaviour: avoir bon genre, mauvais genre, se donner un genre.[1][3]
  4. (grammar) Gender: le genre masculin.[1][2]
  5. Gender (social, identity): études de genre.[1]
  6. (biology) A genus, le genre humain: mankind.[1][11]

Adverb

  1. (colloquial) Like, sort of: un type genre bobo, il était genre : « non ! ».[1][3]

Word family

  • sous-genre

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 116a
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  11. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert