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labeur

Etymology and origin of the French word labeur

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
first half of the 12th century, Oxford Psalter, labur
Borrowed from
Latin labor
Ultimate origin
Latin (labor)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin labor
French labeur
Latin lapsus

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /la.bœʁ/[1]

Forms

labeur m (plural labeurs)[1] Old French labur, labor, labour[2][3][4]; labeur from the 14th century[2][3][4]. Often feminine until the 15th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin labor (“toil, effort, hardship”), with the ending made French on the model of the many words in “-eur”;[5][6][3][7][8] Wiktionary has it pass through Old French labor.[1] Rey thinks the Latin word may be related to lābor (“to slip”), and first meant a load under which one totters, then suffering, then toil.[6] In Latin it belonged mostly to country speech for hard farm work, the usual words for work being “opus” and “opera”, whence the old sense “ploughing” kept in French until the 16th century (compare labourer).[6][4]

Cognate with Occitan labor, Spanish labor and Italian lavoro.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century) labur means pain, affliction or misfortune, and in the plural the fruit of one's work.[5][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “affliction” belongs to Old French; keeping the idea of pain, labeur became hard, sustained work (Wace, 1155).[5][6] The plural “fruits of labour” disappeared before the classical period, and Furetière already noted that the word was ageing.[6] It is now literary, and popular or regional as a plain synonym of travail[6][4][9]; terres en labeur were lands under the plough.[6][4][9]

In printing (1730) a labeur is a large job of typesetting and printing, as opposed to small jobbing work, and imprimerie de labeur a book printer's.[5][6][10]

Timeline

  • first half of the 12th century – Labur “affliction”; plural “fruits of labour”.[5][6]
  • 1155 – Hard work (Wace).[5][6]
  • 14th century – The form labeur.[2]
  • 1690 – Furetière notes that it is ageing.[6]
  • 1694 – First recorded by the Académie.[5]
  • 1730 – A printing term.[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (literary) Hard, sustained work; toil, labour: une vie de labeur.[9][10]
  2. (printing) A large book-printing job: imprimerie de labeur.[9][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 103b
  9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Labeur.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/labeur. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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