inimitié

Forms

inimitié f (plural inimitiés)^[1] Old French enemisté, enemistié and anemistié (12th century); the remade form is first written innimitié in the 13th century.^[2][3] Latinizing forms inimicité (late 15th century) and inimicitié (about 1508) are also recorded.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French enemistié, remade after Latin inimīcitia (“hatred, enmity”).^[3][2][4][5] The Old French word was formed from enemi (“enemy”) (modern ennemi) on the model of amistié (“friendship”) (modern amitié).^[3][2][4] The Latin noun comes from inimīcus (“enemy”), itself formed with the negative prefix in- from amīcus (“friend”).^[3][2]

Littré instead derived the old form from an unattested Vulgar Latin *inimīcitātem, noting that the classical noun itself would have given a form in ⟨-esse⟩, as pigritia gave paresse, and that the ⟨s⟩ of the old spellings stands for the Latin syllable ⟨ci⟩.^[6] Wiktionary likewise starts from this Vulgar Latin form.^[1] Cognate with Occitan enemistat, Spanish enemistad and Portuguese inimizade.^[6] The Old French word is also the source of English enmity.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old French enemisté is recorded from 1145, in Everart's translation of the Distichs of Cato, meaning a feeling of hatred or hostility towards someone.^[3][7] The remade innimitié first appears in a 13th-century manuscript of a French translation of the Digest, in the same sense: Se aucune innimitié est meue entre lui et ceus qui l'avoit eslit (“if any enmity arises between him and those who had chosen him”).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its original sense of lasting hatred or hostility towards a person or a group.^[2][3] In the 16th century it was also applied to a natural antipathy between certain animals (1552) or plants (1570),^[2] a use Littré still records (il y a de l'inimitié entre le lièvre et le lapin).^[6]

The older enemistié was still in use in the 14th century,^[6] but by the 16th the remade inimitié had taken its place, as in Marot and Montaigne.^[6] Today it belongs to literary usage.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1145 – Enemisté appears in Everart's translation of the Distichs of Cato.^[3]
• c. 1190 – Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence writes enemistié.^[7]
• 13th century – The Latinized form innimitié is found in a manuscript of the Digest translation.^[3][2]
• Late 15th century – The Latinizing form inimicité is recorded.^[2]
• 16th century – Marot writes Bien eust le cœur rempli d'inimitié.^[6]
• 1552 – Used of a natural antipathy between animals.^[2]
• 1570 – Used of an antipathy between plants.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) enmity, hostility: a lasting feeling of hatred or aversion towards someone; the opposite of amitié.^[8][3][7]
2. (dated) A natural antipathy between certain animals or plants.^[6][2]

Related words

• ennemi
• amitié
• Latin inimīcitia
• English enmity

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 l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 694a
6. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert