idéal

Forms

idéal (feminine idéale, masculine plural idéaux, feminine plural idéales)^[1] As a noun it is masculine, with the plurals idéaux and idéals.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin ideālis (“relating to the idea”), derived from Latin idea, itself from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “idea”).^[4][2][1] Bloch and Wartburg call the Latin adjective Late Latin and say it was borrowed to serve as an adjective for certain senses of idée.^[5]

The noun is at once a borrowing (1746) of the philosophers' German Ideal, which itself came from the Medieval Latin adjective, and the adjective used as a noun.^[2][4] The TLFi notes that the German word was spread by the works of Kant and Lessing.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from 1551, in Du Parc Champenois's translation of L. Hébreu's Philosophie d'amour: formalité ideale, of what exists only in the mind or imagination.^[4][2] Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and Littré give Desportes, 1578: Leur forme idéale.^[5][6][7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant “existing only in the mind, not perceived by the senses”.^[2][4] It came to mean “uniting every perfection the mind can conceive” (Buffon, 1758), whence le beau idéal in art (Falconet, 1760), opposed to natural beauty.^[2][6] It also entered economics (1766, monnaie idéale) and later mathematics (early 20th century, nombres idéaux).^[2] In everyday language it meant “chimerical” (1762), and since 1812 it has also meant “having every quality one could wish”, a sense now common in advertising.^[2][6]

The noun first named the set of the most fitting abstract representations of a thing (Batteux, 1746), then the inner model guiding an artist (Diderot, 1765), and the perfect type one imagines (Senancour, 1799).^[4][2] Used absolutely (Hugo, 1831) it is the set of aesthetic, moral or intellectual values opposed to material interests, a key word of Romantic aesthetics; from 1836 (Stendhal) it is what gives perfect satisfaction, and familiarly (before 1902, Zola) l'idéal, ce serait de… “the best thing would be”.^[2][4] Mathematics uses it for a kind of subring (1903).^[2]

Timeline

• 1551 – Du Parc Champenois uses ideale “existing in the mind”.^[4]
• 1578 – Desportes writes leur forme idéale.^[5][7]
• 1746 – Batteux uses the noun.^[4][2]
• 1758 – Buffon uses the adjective for what unites all perfections.^[4][2]
• 1760 – Falconet writes of le beau idéal.^[6][2]
• 1765 – Diderot uses the noun for the artist's inner model.^[4][2]
• 1831 – Hugo uses l'idéal absolutely.^[4][2]
• 1903 – The mathematical sense of the noun appears.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Existing only in the mind, abstract, not real: une cité idéale.^[3][4]
2. Perfect, reaching every perfection one can conceive: un mari idéal.^[3][4]
3. (familiar) The best one could imagine: un temps idéal pour la plage.^[3][8]

Noun

1. What one conceives as a perfect type or absolute model in some field: un idéal de justice.^[3][4]
2. L'idéal: the set of aesthetic, moral or intellectual values, as opposed to material interests.^[3][4]
3. (familiar) The best thing, what would be perfect: l'idéal serait de partir tôt.^[3][2]
4. (mathematics) An ideal of a ring.^[2][4]

Word family

• idéaliser
• idéalisme
• idéaliste
• idéalement

Related words

• idée
• German Ideal
• Latin idea

Usage notes

The masculine plural of the adjective is idéaux, rarely idéals; for the noun both plurals are used, idéals mostly in philosophy and art.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)