imposteur

Forms

imposteur m (plural imposteurs, feminine impostrice)^[1] Rabelais also has the more French form emposteur (1532).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin impostor (“deceiver”), a word of the imperial period derived from classical impōnō in its sense “to deceive, impose upon”.^[2][3][4] The Latin agent noun is formed on impostum, a contracted form of the supine impositum;^[5][6] Bloch and Wartburg give the Late Latin form as impositor.^[7] The verb is from in- (“in, on”) and pōnō (“to put”).^[6][8] The noun imposture is from the related Latin impostura, borrowed in the Middle Ages as emposture and again in the 16th century.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Rabelais, in a variant of Gargantua (1542), meaning a deceiver;^[2][6] Littré quotes from the same book “La peste ne tue que le cors, mais tels imposteurs empoisonnent les ames” (“the plague kills only the body, but such impostors poison souls”).^[2][6] The Grand Robert and the GLLF give 1532 for emposteur and 1534 for imposteur.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The noun first named a person who abuses others' credulity with lying speeches.^[3] In classical French it also meant a slanderer (1689, Racine) and someone who tries to impress by false appearances of virtue (1669), the sense of Molière's Tartuffe ou l'Imposteur; these uses, like the corresponding ones of imposer, have gone out of use.^[3][5][9] The sense “person who usurps a name or rank that is not theirs” (1668) is still alive.^[3][5]

English impostor is recorded from the 1580s as “swindler”, from the French word, and as “one who passes himself off as another” from the 1620s.^[8]

Timeline

• 1532 – Rabelais uses the form emposteur.^[3][5]
• 1542 – Imposteur appears in a variant of Rabelais's Gargantua.^[2]
• 1580s – English impostor is recorded.^[8]
• 1668 – Molière uses it for someone who takes a false identity.^[5][3]
• 1669 – It means a hypocrite who puts on false virtue.^[5][3]
• 1689 – Racine uses it for a slanderer.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who abuses others' trust or credulity with lies and false promises for profit; a charlatan.^[9][2][10]
2. A person who tries to impress by false appearances of virtue; a hypocrite.^[9][6]
3. A person who passes himself off as someone else, an impostor: on a fini par démasquer l'imposteur.^[9][10][1]
4. (classical) A slanderer.^[5][6]

Related words

• imposture
• imposer
• Latin impostor

Usage notes

Larousse treats the noun as always masculine, even of a woman;^[10][1] Wiktionary gives a feminine impostrice.^[10][1] Littré also records imposteur as the name of a fish, the spare trompeur; the BHVF dates this sense to 1770.^[6][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF