jour

Pronunciation

• IPA (Europe): /ʒuʁ/^[1]
• IPA (Canada): /ʒʊːʁ/^[1]

Forms

jour m (plural jours)^[1] Old French jorn (about 980), jor and jur (1050); jour from 1274.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French jorn, inherited from Late Latin diurnum (“day”).^[2][3][1][4] In classical Latin “diurnum”, the neuter of the adjective diurnus (“of the day, daily”), was a noun meaning “daily ration, daily wage” and “register of the acts of the people and the Senate”; in Late Latin it became a synonym of diēs (“day”), from which “diurnus” is derived.^[3][2][5] Rey traces “diēs” to an Indo-European root expressing brightness, also present in dieu.^[2]

“Diēs” itself gave Old French di (842, Strasbourg Oaths), which was soon ousted by “jour” and survives only in midi and the names of the weekdays.^[2][3][6] “Jour” is a doublet of the learned diurne.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan jorn, Italian giorno and Catalan jorn.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the second half of the 10th century in the Passion de Clermont, a ciel jorn “on that day”, situating an event in the past.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the word means the period of one turn of the earth, used to place an event in the past, present or future, and by 1100 a day fixed for a feast; the sense “first day” survives only in jour de l'an (about 1380).^[3][2] About 1050 it was already counted (dix jours) and opposed to night, and, from about 1135 the plural meant a lifetime (les jours de ton âge).^[3][2]

The second main sense, “the light of the sun”, is found about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland (si cum li jurz esclairet “as the day grows bright”).^[3] From it came “the way a thing is lit” (1572), figuratively “the light in which something is seen” (1588), and mettre au jour “to reveal” (before 1628) and “to give birth” (1636).^[3][2]

A third, concrete sense, “an opening that lets light through”, appeared in architecture in 1334.^[3][2] Percer à jour was first a fencing phrase, percé à jour de deux coups d'épée (about 1616), and came to mean “to see through someone” (1732).^[2][3] Se faire jour “to force a way through” (1667) became “to appear” in the 1830s.^[2][3] Le jour J, the day fixed for an important event, seems to date from the First World War, like l'heure H (1917).^[2]

Timeline

• 842 – Old French di, from Latin diēs, in the Strasbourg Oaths.^[3]
• 2nd half of the 10th century – Jorn in the Passion de Clermont.^[3]
• c. 1050 – Day opposed to night, in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[3]
• c. 1100 – “Daylight” in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• 1274 – The spelling jour.^[2]
• 1334 – “Opening in a door or window”.^[3]
• c. 1380 – Jour de l'an in Froissart.^[3]
• 1588 – Figurative “aspect, light in which a thing is seen”, in Montaigne.^[3]
• 1636 – Mettre au jour “to give birth”, in Corneille's Le Cid.^[3]
• 1732 – Percer à jour “to see through someone”.^[3][2]
• 1917 – L'heure H, model of le jour J.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Daylight, the light of the sun: le jour se lève, en plein jour.^[8][9]
2. A day, a period of 24 hours: trois jours, jour pour jour.^[8][10]
3. The time between sunrise and sunset, as opposed to night.^[8]
4. A particular day or date: le jour de l'an, le jour J, the day fixed for an event.^[2][9]
5. In the plural: a lifetime or period: finir ses jours, de nos jours, nowadays.^[3][2]
6. An opening that lets light through, a gap; in needlework, openwork.^[8][3]
7. The light or aspect in which something is seen: sous un jour favorable.^[2][3]

Word family

• bonjour
• toujours
• journal
• journellement
• journalisme
• journée
• ajourner
• ajournement
• contre-jour

Related words

• aujourd'hui
• diurne
• midi
• Latin diurnum

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 102b
5. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert