instinct

Forms

instinct m (plural instincts)^[1] Middle French instincte (1495) and instinc (1512); the spelling instinct is a 16th-century remaking of the older form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnstīnctus (“instigation, impulse”), which in Christian Latin also meant a natural inclination.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun comes from īnstinguō (“to incite, urge on”), mostly used in its past participle.^[3][5][6] Rey analyses that verb as in- and a verb meaning “to prick, goad”, distinct from the verb meaning “to extinguish”, and places it in the same family as instigation and instigateur.^[3] Littré compares Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō, “to prick”) and refers to stigmate.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial has instincte in 1495 in the Latin sense of “instigation”; in 1512 Jean Marot writes par instinc de nature, “by natural inclination”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From 1560 (Ronsard) instinct named an inborn tendency that one cannot resist, the sense that has stayed in everyday use.^[2][3] The old sense of an impulse received from outside was already dated in the 17th century and survives only in literary use.^[7][6] From Montaigne (1580) it covered the whole set of natural drives governing animal and human behaviour, and Bloch and Wartburg date this sense to the 17th century.^[2][3][8]

Pascal (1662) opposed it to reason as an intuitive grasp of the world, and also used it for a knack for perceiving one particular thing; the adverbial phrase d'instinct “instinctively” is found before 1850 in Chateaubriand.^[2][3] Buffon's instinct social (1780) gave the sense of one particular drive.^[2] In psychoanalysis the word translated Freud's German Trieb, now usually rendered pulsion, and ethologists use it in a narrower sense than everyday speech.^[3]

Timeline

• 1495 – Instincte “instigation” in Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial.^[2]
• 1512 – Par instinc de nature “by natural inclination” in Jean Marot.^[2][3]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne spells it instinct.^[7]
• 1560 – Ronsard uses it for an inborn tendency one cannot fight.^[2][3]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for the natural drives of animals and humans.^[2][3]
• 1662 – Pascal opposes the heart and instinct to reasoning.^[2]
• 1780 – Buffon writes of an instinct social.^[2][3]
• 1801 – The derivative instinctif appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An inborn, powerful tendency shared by all living beings or by all members of a species: l'instinct de conservation, l'instinct maternel.^[9][10]
2. (science) An innate tendency to perform particular acts, carried out perfectly without prior experience.^[9][2]
3. An impulse, often unreasoned, that guides a person's actions: Mon instinct me disait de ne pas signer.^[11]
4. A natural gift or flair for sensing or doing something: avoir l'instinct des affaires.^[11][7]
5. (psychoanalysis) A drive in Freud's sense, also called pulsion: instinct de vie, instinct de mort.^[9][3]
6. (literary, dated) An impulse or prompting received from outside.^[7][6]

Word family

• instinctif
• instinctuel

Related words

• instigation
• Latin īnstīnctus

Usage notes

D'instinct means “instinctively, spontaneously”.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 723b
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)