Etymologically
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honnête

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɔ.nɛt/[1]

Forms

honnête (plural honnêtes)[1] Old French honeste, oneste, honneste (15th century), honnête (17th century).[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin honestus (“honourable, respected; virtuous; fine”),[3][4][5][6] from Latin honōs (“honour”), through a stem “*honos, honeris” (see honneur).[4][7]

Cognate with Old Occitan honest, Spanish honesto and Italian onesto.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prologue of the Vie de saint Alexis (mid-11th century) says that the saint's youth fut honeste e spiritel, honourable and spiritual.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th century it described what is seemly (about 1160) and persons noble and worthy of esteem (about 1174), senses now lost, and about 1280 it meant “courteous, civil”.[3][4] From the mid-15th century an honnête femme was a chaste woman (Monstrelet), a use that now sounds dated.[3][4]

Honnête homme (1538) was in Montaigne (1580) an affable man of pleasant conversation, and in the 17th century the ideal gentleman of Faret's L'Honnête Homme ou l'Art de plaire à la Cour (1630), combining birth, culture, courage and probity;[4][3] the phrase now refers to that period.[4] The modern sense “who respects the property of others” is in Molière (1669), whence trop poli pour être honnête.[3][4] From the idea of fitness come un prix honnête, un vin honnête “decent”, and the polite vous êtes bien honnête (1781).[4][9] The noun honnêteté remakes the older onesté (about 881).[4]

Timeline

  • c. 881 – Onesté “honour”.[4]
  • c. 1050 – Honeste in Saint Alexis.[3]
  • c. 1160 – “Seemly”.[3]
  • c. 1280 – “Courteous”.[3]
  • Mid-15th century – Honnestes femmes in Monstrelet.[3]
  • 1538 – Honnête homme.[3]
  • 1630 – Faret's L'Honnête Homme.[3]
  • 1669 – “Honest (with property)”, in Molière.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Honest, upright: un homme honnête; scrupulous in money matters.[10][11]
  2. Sincere, frank: sois honnête.[11][1]
  3. Decent, reasonable, fair: un salaire honnête, une honnête moyenne.[11][1]
  4. (dated) Of a woman, virtuous.[10][12]
  5. (history) Honnête homme: the cultivated gentleman of the 17th century.[4][3]
  6. (dated) Polite: vous êtes bien honnête.[9][2]

Word family

  • honnêtement
  • honnêteté
  • déshonnête
  • malhonnête
  • honnêtement
  • honnêteté
  • malhonnête

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b 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 m n 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 g h i j k l 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. 4, 461b
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)