indien

Forms

indien (feminine indienne, masculine plural indiens, feminine plural indiennes)^[1] Old French yndiien.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Late Latin Indianus (“staying in India”), from Latin India (“India”).^[2][3][4] The Latin name comes from Ancient Greek Ἰνδία (India), from Ἰνδός (Indós, “the Indus”).^[3][4]

The sense “Native American” is formed anew on Indes, the name the navigators gave America, the West Indies, because they believed they had reached the Indies by a western route, with the suffix -ien.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1265 as the noun yndiien “inhabitant of India” in Brunetto Latini's Trésor.^[2][3] The adjective “from India” appears in 1359 in toile indienne, a cotton cloth.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Applied to the natives of America from the early 16th century (1505, in the account of Gonneville's voyage),^[3] the word was used as a noun in this sense from 1721.^[2][3] In the 19th century it came to evoke above all the “Redskins” of North America and the conquest of the West, which gave à la file indienne “in single file” (second half of the 19th century) and the swimming stroke nage à l'indienne (1901).^[3] L'été indien translates the English Indian summer.^[3]

Toile indienne became the noun indienne “printed cotton” (1632).^[3][2] In the slang of France the word came to mean a dangerous person (mid-20th century), then any suspect individual,^[3] and in the French of Réunion and Mauritius it names a person of Indian descent.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1265 – Yndiien in Brunetto Latini's Trésor.^[2]
• 1359 – The adjective in toile indienne.^[2][3]
• 1505 – Used of the natives of America.^[3]
• 1588 – Montaigne uses the adjective in this sense.^[2]
• 1632 – The noun indienne “printed cotton”.^[2][3]
• 1721 – The noun “Native American” in the Dictionnaire de Trévoux.^[2][3]
• 1901 – Nage à l'indienne is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Indian: of India or its people: l'océan Indien, le chanvre indien.^[5][1]
2. Of the indigenous peoples of the Americas: une réserve indienne.^[5][6][1]

Noun

1. Indien, Indienne: a person from India.^[5][2][1]
2. Indien, Indienne: a member of an indigenous people of the Americas, an Amerindian.^[5][7][1]
3. (Réunion, Mauritius) A person of Indian descent.^[3]

Word family

• indienne
• indianiser
• indianité
• indianiste
• amérindien

Related words

• Inde
• Indes
• Late Latin Indianus

Usage notes

As a noun for a person the word is written with a capital: un Indien, une Indienne.^[1][5] Indien is also a name of the constellation Indus.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette