impatience

Forms

impatience f (plural impatiences)^[1] Old French impacience.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impatientia (“inability to bear something, lack of firmness”), first as impacience.^[2][4][5] The Latin word is derived from impatiēns (“impatient”), from in- (“not”) and patientia (“patience”).^[3][5][6] Wiktionary treats it as inherited through Old French and notes that it can be analysed as impatient with -ence.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan enpaciencia, Spanish impaciencia and Italian impazienza.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Sermons de saint Bernard (late 12th century) impacience means a lack of resignation, a readiness to revolt.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The modern psychological sense, linked with impatient, spread in the late 16th and the 17th century: lack of patience to bear something or someone (1580, Montaigne).^[4][5] The plural impatiences came to mean “fits of impatience” (1585, Noël du Fail).^[2][4] Avoir impatience de “to long to” is recorded about 1695 (Fénelon).^[5]

From 1764 the word also named a nervous irritation felt as tingling in the muscles, usually in the plural.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Impacience appears in the Sermons de saint Bernard.^[2][5]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for a lack of patience to bear something.^[4][5]
• 1585 – Noël du Fail uses the plural for fits of impatience.^[2]
• 1764 – It names nervous irritations of the muscles.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lack of patience as a trait of character, an inability to restrain oneself: l'impatience des enfants.^[7][8][9]
2. Inability to bear something or someone, or to wait calmly; eagerness: attendre avec impatience, brûler d'impatience.^[7][9]
3. (chiefly plural) A fit or show of impatience.^[2][4]
4. (plural) Nervous twitches or tingling in the limbs.^[2][4]

Related words

• impatient
• patience¹
• Latin impatientia

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)