hasard

Pronunciation

• IPA: /a.zaʁ/^[1]

Forms

hasard m (plural hasards)^[1] Old French hasart (12th century); hazard in the 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Spanish azar (“an unlucky throw at dice; a dice game”), recorded in 1283 in Alfonso the Wise's book of games, from Arabic الزهر (az-zahr, “the die”), with the article “al” assimilated before “z”.^[2][4][5][6] The ⟨h-⟩ reflects the medieval habit of writing foreign words beginning with a vowel with “h”, and was later pronounced as an aspirate h.^[2][4][1]

The sense “die” is not found in Classical Arabic, so Corominas started from زهر (zahr, “flower”), a flower being painted on one face of the die; others proposed يسر (yasara, “to play at dice”).^[2][4][3] Medieval writers such as William of Tyre told that the game was invented at the siege of a castle called Hasart in Syria.^[7]

Compare Spanish azar and Italian zara; Italian azzardo comes from French.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Everard de Kirkham's version of the Distichs of Cato (about 1150) uses hasart for a game of dice; in 1200 Jean Bodel's Jeu de saint Nicolas uses it for a winning throw at that game (the six).^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The dice game gave jeu de hasard “game of chance” (1538).^[4] From the early 13th century hasart meant a nasty blow, whence “risk, danger” (15th century), now dated except in les hasards de la guerre.^[2][4] In the early 16th century it came to mean a chance event, and by 1573 the unknown cause of such events, as sort and fortune were used; later science spoke of les lois du hasard.^[2][4]

Adverbial phrases followed: au hasard (Montaigne, 1580), à tout hasard (late 16th century) and par hasard (1636), which replaced the bare adverb hasart (1532).^[4][2] The golfing hasard (1906) is borrowed back from English hazard.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – Hasart, a dice game.^[2]
• 1200 – A throw at dice, Jean Bodel.^[2]
• 15th century – Hazard “risk, danger”.^[2]
• early 16th century – A chance event.^[2]
• 1538 – Jeu de hasard.^[4]
• 1580 – Au hasard, Montaigne.^[4]
• 1636 – Par hasard.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. chance; the unforeseeable cause of events: le hasard fait bien les choses.^[9][1]
2. A chance event, coincidence: quel hasard !.^[9][1]
3. Par hasard: by chance, au hasard: at random, à tout hasard: just in case.^[4][1]
4. Jeu de hasard: a game of chance.^[9][4]
5. (dated) Risk, danger, les hasards de la guerre.^[9][4]
6. (golf) A hazard.^[1][4]

Word family

• hasarder
• hasardeur
• hasardeux

Related words

• English hazard

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 204a
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert