Etymologically
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idée

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Pronunciation

Forms

idée f (plural idées)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin idea (“idea, archetype (in Plato's sense)”), itself borrowed from Ancient Greek ἰδέα (idéa, “form, look; kind; idea”).[2][3][4][5][1] The Greek noun is from ἰδεῖν (ideîn, “to see”), which serves as the aorist of ὁράω (horáō), from the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see”), also behind Latin videō and so voir.[3][2][6]

The Greek word meant “visible form”, then “kind, class”, and in Plato the ideal form grasped by thought, Late Latin also used “idea” for “visible form”.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1119 Philippe de Thaon's Comput uses idees for the forms of things present in God from all eternity.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Bloch and Wartburg note that it was little used before the 17th century.[4] Oresme (1370–72) used ydee for the archetype of a species, and in 1458 it meant the plan of an action to come.[2][3] In 1487 it took up the Latin sense “form, image”, and in Ronsard (1552) the image of something as the senses perceive it.[2]

Descartes (1637) used it for any representation formed by thought, and Pascal (1656) for a set of opinions.[3][7] Projet, dessein is in Molière (1670), and en idée “in imagination” in Corneille (1643).[2] J'ai idée que dates from 1775, idée fixe and idée reçue from the 19th century, and Belgian French avoir de l'idée means “to be imaginative”.[3]

Timeline

  • 1119 – Idees, the forms of things in God, in Philippe de Thaon.[2]
  • 1370–1372 – Ydee, an archetype, in Oresme.[2]
  • 1487 – “Form, image”.[2]
  • 1552 – A sense image, in Ronsard.[2]
  • 1637 – Any representation of the mind, in Descartes.[7][3]
  • 1656 – Opinions, in Pascal.[2]
  • 1670 – A plan, in Molière.[2]
  • 1775 – Avoir idée que in Beaumarchais.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An idea, a thought, notion: l'idée du beau, une idée générale.[8][6]
  2. A plan, intention: avoir l'idée de partir, bonne idée ![2][3]
  3. An approximate notion: avoir une idée de, aucune idée.[3][9]
  4. Les idées: opinions, views: idées politiques.[8][3]
  5. The mind: se mettre dans l'idée.[3][9]
  6. (philosophy) In Plato, an eternal intelligible form, an archetype.[6][10]
  • idéal
  • idéologie
  • voir

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 532a
  6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert