interruption

Forms

interruption f (plural interruptions)^[1] Old French iterrupcion (1281), entreruption (13th century) and interrucion (early 14th century); interruption is found from 1396.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman forms include enterepcion, interrupcioun and interupcion.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin interruptiō (“interruption, discontinuation”), in law the interruption of usucapion,^[2][3][6] from interruptum, the supine of interrumpō (“to break apart, interrupt”).^[6][4][7] In Classical Latin the noun was a figure of rhetoric, “reticence”.^[4][3] It belongs with interrompre, borrowed from the same Latin verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, as iterrupcion in a La Rochelle text of 1281, is a legal term for something that disturbs the enjoyment of a right; the text speaks of things held and exploited for many years sanz iterrupcion.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word was at first a legal term, and is attested in rhetoric from 1538.^[3][4] From Montaigne, at the end of the 16th century, it took the general sense of the action of interrupting something, or the state of what is interrupted.^[3][4]

In 1671 Pomey applied it to someone who is speaking, which gave sans interruption, first said of a speech.^[2][3] In modern French it also forms the legal term for stopping the course of a prescription and the phrase interruption volontaire de grossesse (abortion).^[9]

Timeline

• 1281 – Iterrupcion appears as a legal term at La Rochelle.^[2]
• 1396 – The spelling interruption is recorded.^[4]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne records it as a term of rhetoric.^[4]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it in the general sense.^[4]
• 1671 – Pomey records the interruption of a speaker and sans interruption.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of interrupting something, or the state of what is interrupted; a break or pause: interruption du trafic.^[9][2]
2. Sans interruption: without stopping, continuously.^[9][3]
3. The action of interrupting a person who is speaking, and the words said to do so.^[7][2]
4. (law) The stopping of the course of prescription.^[9][7]
5. Interruption volontaire de grossesse (IVG): abortion.^[9]
6. (computing) A suspension of a program's execution.^[9]

Related words

• interrompre
• interrupteur
• Latin interruptiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert