levée

Forms

levée f (plural levées)^[1] Old French leveie (1269).^[2]

Etymology

It is the feminine past participle, from French lever (“to raise, lift”), used as a noun.^[2][3][4][5] The verb comes from Latin levō (“to raise, lift”).^[6]

Littré compares Old Occitan levada and Italian levata.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the first quarter of the 13th century in the Charité of the Reclus de Molliens, has the sense “tax”.^[2][5] The Grand Robert gives the late 12th century for “action of collecting”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Like the verb, the noun first named the act of collecting and what was collected, a tax.^[3] It named earth or stone heaped up as a bank (1269, leveie) and, from 1537, a dike along a river.^[2] Military enlistment followed in 1559, in Amyot, and during the Revolution levée en masse (1793).^[2][3]

The idea of lifting and taking away gave the cards taken by a player (1680), the collection of letters from a postbox (1808) and a sum withdrawn from a bank (1867).^[2][3] The idea of ending or removing gave levée du scellé (1679), levée du corps (1690), the sense “suppression” (1765) and levée d'écrou (1842).^[2][3] Lievee de bouclier meant a show of arrogance about 1389, and levée de boucliers is in the Académie's dictionary in 1835.^[2][5] In the French of Africa levée de deuil is the ceremony that ends a funeral or a period of mourning.^[3]

English borrowed it as levee “embankment” in 1719, through the French of New Orleans.^[8]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – “Tax”, in the Reclus de Molliens.^[2]
• 1269 – Leveie “bank of earth or stone” in Burgundy.^[2]
• c. 1389 – Philippe de Mézières writes lievee de bouclier.^[2]
• 1537 – “Dike along a river”.^[2]
• 1549 – Estienne records the sense “ending”.^[2]
• 1559 – Amyot uses it for the levying of troops.^[2][5]
• 1680 – Richelet records “trick” at cards.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Furetière records levée du corps.^[2][5]
• 1719 – English levee “embankment”.^[8]
• 1793 – Levée en masse.^[2][5]
• 1835 – Levée de boucliers in the Académie's dictionary.^[5]
• 1842 – Levée d'écrou.^[2]
• 1867 – A sum withdrawn from a bank.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bank of earth or stone, a causeway or dike;^[9][2] levée alluviale, a ridge of alluvium along a river.^[9][2]
2. (dated) The act of lifting, now mainly in levée de boucliers, a general outcry against something.^[9][7]
3. Removal: levée des scellés, levée du corps, the removal of the body from the house of the dead and the ceremony held there.^[9]
4. The ending of something: levée d'un siège, levée de séance, levée d'écrou “release from prison”.^[9][10]
5. The collecting of taxes, or of letters from a postbox.^[10][3]
6. The levying of troops: levée en masse.^[2][3]
7. (card games) A trick.^[1][2]
8. (banking) A sum withdrawn from a bank.^[10][3]
9. (baking) The rising of dough, and in agriculture the emergence of seedlings.^[10]

Related words

• lever
• levé
• levant
• Latin levō
• English levee

References

1. ^ a b c 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 s t u v w 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 j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)