Etymologically
Log in

le

This is an old revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 04:11. It may differ significantly from the current version. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Current version Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /lə/[1]
  • IPA: /l‿/[1]
  • IPA (Paris): /lø/[1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): /l(ə)/[1]

Forms

le m (feminine la, masculine and feminine plural les, prevocalic masculine or feminine singular l')[1] Old French masculine subject li, object lo (881) and le; feminine la; plural li, les, feminine las, les.[2] Contracted forms: au (from a le), aux, du (from de le), des, Old French also had el, ou (from en le) and ès (from en les).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French le, inherited from Latin ille (“that”), from the accusative forms illum, “illam”, “illōs”, “illās”, with the loss of the first syllable because these words were unstressed and always placed before the noun.[4][3][1] Littré found it odd that “ille” dropped its stressed syllable, and explained it by the same proclitic use.[5] The object pronoun “le”, “la”, “les” (“je le vois”) is the same word, from the same Latin forms.[6][3]

“Ille” was the demonstrative for a distant object in the Latin system of three demonstratives; its value weakened, especially in speech, and it replaced is, a monosyllable, with a fuller form.[4] Next to a noun it was reduced to an article, placed after the noun in Romanian and before it in the other Romance languages, Rey dates the choice of the order in the Latin of Gaul to after 271, when Dacia was cut off.[4] Cognate with Occitan lo, Spanish el, Portuguese o and Italian lo.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 881) already has the subject form li (li rex pagiens “the pagan king”), the object form lo and the feminine la (la domnizelle).[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the article was used much less than now: it was rare before abstract nouns and, except to give them extension, before proper names.[4] Traces of the old use survive in proverbs and fixed phrases such as us et coutumes.[4]

The contraction au absorbed the old ou from en le (still used by Villon), as in jeter au feu; hence au Portugal but en Espagne, au printemps but en été.[3][4] Aux likewise ousted ès from en les, kept only in phrases such as docteur ès lettres.[3][4] A grammatical joke recorded since 1919 turns redis-le-moi into redis-le-me-le.[4]

Timeline

  • 842 – The pronoun lo in the Strasbourg Oaths.[6]
  • c. 881 – The article li, lo, la in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.[2]
  • late 10th century – Le as subject and elided l'.[2]
  • c. 1100 – Plural subject les in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • 1919 – The joke redis-le-me-le is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Article

  1. the: the definite article, masculine singular; feminine la, plural les, l' before a vowel.[7][1]
  2. Before a noun taken in a general sense: le chien est un mammifère.[7]
  3. Before a family name in the plural: les Bourbons.[7]

Pronoun

  1. Him, it: direct object pronoun of the third person masculine, la her, les them.[7][1]
  2. (neuter) It, so: stands for an idea already expressed: je le sais, il le faut.[8][7]
  3. Stands for an adjective or noun used as attribute: fatiguée, je le suis.[8]

Word family

  • au
  • du
  • des

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 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 h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse