inanimé

Forms

inanimé (feminine inanimée, masculine plural inanimés, feminine plural inanimées)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French in- (“not”) + animé (“animated, alive”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The base comes from animer, borrowed from Latin animō (“to give life”), from anima (“breath of life, soul”).^[6] Littré derived the adjective instead from Latin inanimātus.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bloch and Wartburg, the Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and the DHLF date it to 1478; the DHLF says it first meant lacking courage or strength of soul.^[6][3][4][5] The TLFi's first record is from 1529, in Geoffroy Tory's Champfleury, in corps materiels et inanimez “material and lifeless bodies”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From 1529 it described what has no life by its nature, such as matter.^[5][2] In 1665 Racine used it figuratively for a people without vigour, and the sense “unfeeling, expressionless” has since become dated.^[2][5][8] From 1677 it was also said of a body that is normally alive but seems lifeless, dead or unconscious, as in tomber inanimé.^[5][8][4]

Grammar took it up in 1883 for the inanimate gender of some languages, contrasted with the animate.^[8][2] Used as a noun, l'inanimé names lifeless things in general.^[2]

Timeline

• 1478 – First recorded, meaning without courage.^[6][5]
• 1529 – Geoffroy Tory uses it for lifeless bodies.^[2]
• 1665 – Racine uses it figuratively.^[2][8]
• 1677 – Racine uses it of a body that seems lifeless.^[8][5]
• 1883 – Genre inanimé appears in grammar.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Inanimate, without life by its nature: Les pierres sont des objets inanimés.^[4][2]
2. Lifeless or unconscious: of a person who has died or fainted: On a trouvé le randonneur inanimé au pied de la falaise.^[4][1]
3. (grammar) Inanimate, of the gender or class of nouns naming things.^[2][8][1]
4. (dated, figurative) Lacking spirit or liveliness.^[7][5]

Related words

• animé
• animer
• ranimer
• Latin anima

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ 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