impureté

Forms

impureté f (plural impuretés)^[1] Middle French inpurté (about 1380) and impurité (1470), beside impureté from the end of the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin impūritās (“impurity”), from impūrus (“impure”),^[4][3][5] with its form and senses adapted after pureté.^[4][3][5] A closer form, impurité, is found from 1470.^[4][5]

Cognate with Old Occitan impuritat, Spanish impuridad and Italian impurità.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as inpurtés, a gloss of Latin impuritas, in a Latin–French glossary of the late 14th century (the Aalma, about 1380).^[4][2] The form impureté is found at the end of the 14th century in Eustache Deschamps.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the history of the adjective impur.^[5] A figurative, moral sense was there from the first texts and grew in the 17th century: moral corruption (Cotgrave, 1611), unchastity (1611) and, in religious language, a legal impurity, an act or state that the Law declares unclean (Le Maistre de Sacy's Bible, 1683; the GLLF dates it 1672).^[5][4][2]

In the physical sense Ambroise Paré speaks of l'impureté du sang before 1590, and by Pascal's time it could mean whatever is impure.^[4] In the plural, impuretés are the unwanted particles or foreign matter in a liquid or a substance,^[5][4] and in electronics an impurity is a foreign atom in the crystal lattice of a semiconductor.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – Inpurté glosses Latin impuritas in the Aalma.^[2][4]
• late 14th century – The form impureté appears in Eustache Deschamps.^[2]
• 1470 – The variant impurité is recorded.^[4][5]
• before 1590 – Paré writes of l'impureté du sang.^[4][6]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense “moral corruption”.^[4][5]
• before 1662 – Pascal uses it for what is impure.^[4]
• 1683 – Le Maistre de Sacy's Bible uses it for a legal impurity.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. impurity: the state of being impure, mixed with foreign matter: l'impureté d'une source, the impurity of a spring.^[7][4]
2. (chiefly plural) A foreign particle or substance that spoils a material: filtrer un vin pour en ôter les impuretés.^[4][7]
3. (electronics) A foreign atom in a semiconductor's crystal lattice.^[7]
4. (dated or literary) Moral corruption, baseness; unchastity.^[7][4][5]
5. (religion) A ritual uncleanness under the Law, impureté légale.^[6][2]

Related words

• impur
• pureté
• pur
• Latin impūritās

References

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