intérieur

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɛ̃.te.ʁjœʁ/^[1]

Forms

intérieur (feminine intérieure, masculine plural intérieurs, feminine plural intérieures)^[1] First written interior (1406, 1530); intérieur from 1535 (Olivétan) or 1556 (Bonivard).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin interior (“inner, further in; more personal, more intimate”), an old comparative of inter (“between, among”) that replaced an assumed “*interus” “inner”.^{[5][2][6][4][7]} The Latin plural “interiora”, the inner parts of a house and the entrails, gave Middle French “enteriors” “heart and liver (of a bird)” in the 14th century and “interieures” “entrails” in 1542.^[5][2]

Cognate with Old Occitan interior, Spanish interior and Italian interiore.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It came in through religious writing: in the Internelle consolacion (1406, manuscript of about 1447), a translation of the Imitation of Christ, it describes what is within the soul.^[2][5][3][8]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, opposed to extérieur, appears in 1530 in Lefèvre d'Étaples' Bible (interiores parties de la maison), and the noun l'intérieur “the inside” in Palissy (1580).^[5][2] Olivétan's Bible has l'homme intérieur (1535), the spiritual man, Pascal uses it for mental life (disposition intérieure), and vie intérieure is recorded in 1704.^[2][5][3]

From 1779 (Madame de Genlis) the noun means one's home and domestic life, whence vêtement d'intérieur.^[5][2] It also meant the territory of a country (1787), whence the ministère de l'Intérieur (1812); in Alsace, since the Revolution, l'intérieur is the rest of France.^[2] In painting a tableau d'intérieur (1829) shows a room; in football an intérieur is an inside forward (1927).^[5][9]

Timeline

• 1406 – Interior, of the soul.^[2][4]
• 1530 – Concrete sense, Lefèvre d'Étaples.^[5]
• 1535 – L'homme intérieur, Olivétan.^[2][3]
• 1580 – The noun “inside”, Palissy.^[5]
• 1779 – One's home, Madame de Genlis.^[5]
• 1812 – Ministère de l'Intérieur, commerce intérieur.^[2][5]
• 1829 – Tableau d'intérieur.^[5]
• 1927 – A football position.^[5][9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. interior, inner, inside: cour intérieure, poche intérieure, mer intérieure.^[10][1]
2. Concerning a country or group internally: politique intérieure, commerce intérieur, règlement intérieur.^[10][5]
3. Of the mind or soul: vie intérieure, voix intérieure.^[2][5]

Noun

1. The inside of something: à l'intérieur, de l'intérieur, from within.^[1][2]
2. A home, household; its furnishings: un intérieur bourgeois, d'intérieur, for wear at home.^[2][5]
3. The interior of a country, l'Intérieur, the Ministry of the Interior.^[2]
4. (art) A painting of a room, (cinema) a studio shot (en intérieur).^[2][5]
5. (football) An inside forward.^[5][9]

Word family

• intérieurement

Related words

• extérieur
• interne
• Latin interior

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 n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 754b
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert