inférieur

Forms

inférieur (feminine inférieure, masculine plural inférieurs, feminine plural inférieures)^[1] Middle French inferiore (15th century); the spelling inférieur is recorded from 1536.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower; of lower rank”), the comparative of īnferus (“below, beneath”), which had both senses already in Classical Latin.^[5][2][4][6] The Latin adjective is also the source of enfer.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean de Bueil's Jouvencel (1461–1466) is the first record, speaking of the membres inferiores, the lower limbs of the body.^[5][7][2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective kept the Latin values: the concrete “situated lower down” and the abstract “placed lower in a ranking”, used of persons as an adjective in the 15th century and as a noun from 1482.^[2][5] From 1540 it also meant “of lesser worth or quality”.^[5][2]

From the concrete sense came the astronomical planètes inférieures (1562), the planets nearer the Sun than the Earth, and the geographical sense “nearer the sea, at a lower altitude” (Furetière, 1690), as in the lower course of a river.^[5][2][8] Cuvier spoke in 1805 of animaux inférieurs, animals of simpler organisation, a phrase later read as “less advanced in evolution”.^[2][5]

Timeline

• 1461–1466 – Jean de Bueil's Jouvencel has inferiore “situated lower”.^[5][2]
• 15th century – A commentary on the Ovide moralisé uses it of persons of low rank.^[5]
• 1482 – It is used as a noun for a person lower in rank.^[5][2]
• 1540 – Herberay des Essarts uses it for “of lesser worth”.^[5]
• 1562 – Planètes inférieures appears in Du Pinet's translation of Pliny.^[5]
• 1574 – infériorité is first recorded.^[9]
• 1584 – The adverb inférieurement is first recorded.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the geographical sense.^[5]
• 1805 – Cuvier writes of animaux inférieurs.^[5][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lower, situated below: la mâchoire inférieure, les membres inférieurs (the legs), for example Les étages inférieurs de la tour sont fermés.^[8][5]
2. (geography) Nearer the sea, of a river's course or a region: le cours inférieur d'un fleuve.^[8][7]
3. (astronomy) Planètes inférieures: the planets closer to the Sun than the Earth.^[8][5]
4. Inferior, lower in rank, value, quality or quantity, for example Ce vin est inférieur au précédent.^[8][5]
5. (mathematics) Less than: inférieur ou égal “less than or equal to”.^[1]

Noun

1. A subordinate, a person lower in rank.^[5][8]

Word family

• inférieurement
• infériorité
• inférioriser

Related words

• supérieur
• enfer
• infère
• Latin inferior

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 666a
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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France