infantile

Forms

infantile (plural infantiles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin infantilis (“of a child, childish”), derived from īnfāns (“child”), the source of enfant.^[2][3][1] Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and the Petit Robert call the Latin word Late Latin.^[4][5][6] It took the place of Old French enfantil (about 1200, still recorded in 1611), which Rey treats as a French derivative and Bloch and Wartburg trace to the Latin word itself;^[2][3][4] Bloch and Wartburg add that the old form was sometimes respelled after the Latin.^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Calvin used it in 1560 in the Institution de la religion chrestienne in a pejorative sense, “childish, puerile”.^[2][3] Bonivard wrote of motz infantiles, words such as a child says, before 1570.^[7][2]

Semantic evolution

The word meant “childlike” or “childish” in the 16th century.^[3] In medicine it came to mean “relating to early childhood” in the 1860s, as in paralysie infantile (1869); Bloch and Wartburg date the medical term to 1870.^[2][3][8][4] At the beginning of the 20th century it was used of a person whose physical or mental development had stopped at the stage of childhood, and by extension of an adult or behaviour judged immature, the pejorative sense that Calvin had used and that became common again from the end of the 19th century.^[3][5]

The derivatives infantilisme (1871), infantiliser (before 1966) and infantilisation (1970) followed.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Old French enfantil “childlike”.^[2][3]
• 1560 – Calvin uses infantile for “puerile”.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave still records enfantil.^[2]
• 1863 – The medical sense “of early childhood”.^[3][8][6]
• 1869 – Paralysie infantile in a medical paper.^[2]
• 1871 – Infantilisme appears in medicine.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Relating to early childhood: mortalité infantile, maladies infantiles.^[6][2]
2. Of an adult: whose mental, emotional or physical development has stopped at the stage of childhood; immature.^[6][5]
3. childish, puerile: Il a eu une réaction infantile.^[6][5]

Word family

• infantilisme
• infantiliser
• infantilisation

Related words

• enfant
• enfantin
• Latin infans

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert