Etymologically
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intérieur

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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

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