identité

Forms

identité f (plural identités)^[1] An early spelling ydemtité is recorded in 1327.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin identitās (“sameness”),^[4][5][6][7] derived from idem (“the same”).^[4][5][8] Rey adds that, like the Latin sources of identifier and identique, it was formed to render a Greek philosophical term.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi first finds it at the beginning of the 14th century, in Jehan Bras-de-Fer's Pamphile et Galatée, for the quality that makes one thing or person the same as another, with no difference between them.^[4][5] The GLLF and the Grand Robert give the spelling ydemtité in 1327, in the sense of “social equality between persons”, and identité in Oresme in 1370, “the fact of being united with someone”.^[3][2][6] Littré quotes Oresme: La identité ou unité que il ont à leur parens, les fait estre ensemble come uns meisme (“the identity or unity they have with their parents makes them be together as one and the same”).^[8]

Semantic evolution

Bloch and Wartburg date the modern sense of sameness from Cotgrave (1611).^[6][3] In the 18th century the word took up the meaning of permanence, the awareness that the self persists (Voltaire, 1756), which became identité personnelle in philosophy, and in 1797 that of being one and the same thing under several names or aspects.^[4][5] In law and everyday use it came to mean, from 1801, the fact that a person is the individual he says or is presumed to be.^[4][5] It also became a term of algebra (1840) and of logic, where Cournot speaks of the principe d'identité (1851).^[4][5]

From the legal sense came plaque d'identité (1881), carte d'identité (1931), pièce d'identité and photo d'identité, and identité judiciaire (20th century), the police service that identifies people.^[5][3] In psychology the Petit Robert records crise d'identité and identité culturelle.^[9] The English word identity (about 1600) comes from French identité.^[10]

Timeline

• early 14th century – First record, in Jehan Bras-de-Fer's Pamphile et Galatée.^[4][5]
• 1327 – The spelling ydemtité is used of social equality.^[3][2]
• 1370 – Oresme writes identité.^[3][2][8]
• c. 1600 – English identity is first recorded.^[10]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense of sameness.^[6][3]
• 1756 – Voltaire uses it for the persistence of the self.^[4][5]
• 1801 – It means the fact that a person is who he is said to be.^[4][5]
• 1840 – It becomes a term of mathematics.^[4][5]
• 1851 – Cournot writes of the principe d'identité.^[4]
• 1881 – Plaque d'identité appears in a ministerial decision.^[4][5]
• 1931 – Larousse records carte d'identité.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The character of two or more things that are identical; sameness, close similarity.^[9][11][12]
2. The character of what is one: two names or aspects of a single reality.^[9][11]
3. (psychology) The permanence of the self, what stays the same in a person: crise d'identité “identity crisis”, identité culturelle, the cultural features proper to a group.^[9]
4. The fact that a person is a given individual and can be recognised as such, and the details that establish it: carte d'identité, pièce d'identité.^[4][5][11]
5. Identité judiciaire: the police department that identifies people.^[5][3]
6. (mathematics) An equation that holds whatever the values of its terms.^[5][1]
7. (logic) Principe d'identité: the principle that a thing is identical with itself.^[4][3]

Word family

• identitaire

Related words

• identifier
• identiquement
• identique
• idem
• Late Latin identitās
• English identity

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d 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, 537b
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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)