incapacité

Forms

incapacité f (plural incapacités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French in- + capacité.^[2][3][4][1] The TLFi compares Christian Latin incapacitas (“inability to understand”), recorded by Blaise,^[2] whereas Littré notes that there was Latin incapax (“incapable”) but no corresponding Latin noun.^[5] Etymonline derives the English word incapacity from the French word and traces that to the same Latin noun, as Medieval Latin.^[6]

The base capacité is borrowed from Latin capācitās, from capāx (“able to contain, capable”), from capiō (“to take”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is a law text, the Coutumes de Nivernois of 1534, where it means a person's legal inability to enjoy a right: si l'inhabilité ou incapacité est perpetuelle “if the disability or incapacity is permanent”.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert date the word to about 1525.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Rey notes that the legal sense and the general sense, the state of a person who is not able, appear almost together.^[8] The general sense is recorded in 1544 in G. d'Aurigny's translation of the Livre de police humaine (l'incapacité de sa jeunesse “the incapacity of his youth”); the GLLF dates the sense “lack of the abilities needed for a post” to 1552 and “being unable to do something” to 1686, in Madame de Sévigné.^[2][9] The Académie in 1694 defined it as the opposite of capacité and noted that, unlike capacité, it was not used of material things.^[10] The DHLF likewise says that it never developed the concrete sense of capacité, although the TLFi records a rare use of a thing that cannot contain.^[8][2]

The Académie added incapacité légale in 1798.^[11] Incapacité de travail, inability to work after an injury or illness, comes from the Penal Code of 1810, and gave incapacité totale, partielle and permanente in insurance and labour law.^[2][9][4]

Timeline

• c. 1525 – First date given by Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert.^[7][3]
• 1534 – Legal sense in the Coutumes de Nivernois.^[2][8]
• 1544 – General sense “state of being incapable”.^[2][8]
• 1552 – Paradin uses it for incompetence in a post.^[9]
• 1610s – English borrows it as incapacity.^[6]
• 1694 – The Académie records it, not of material things.^[10]
• 1798 – The Académie records incapacité légale.^[11]
• 1810 – Incapacité de travail in the Penal Code.^[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being unable to do something, inability: être dans l'incapacité de, incapacité à + infinitive, as in elle est dans l'incapacité de venir ce soir.^[4][12][2]
2. Lack of the abilities needed for a post or task, incompetence.^[4][12][2]
3. (law) Legal inability to enjoy or exercise a right or to perform certain acts.^[9][12][5]
4. Inability to work after an injury or illness, disability: incapacité de travail, incapacité totale, incapacité partielle, incapacité permanente.^[4][12]
5. (rare) Of a thing, lack of capacity or of the properties needed for a function.^[2]

Related words

• capacité
• incapable
• Latin capācitās
• English incapacity

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
11. ^ a b Académie française (1798), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 5th ed., Paris: Smits
12. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)