lignée

Forms

lignée f (plural lignées)^[1] Old French ligniee, lignede, lignie.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French ligne + -ée.^[5][6][7] The noun comes from Latin līnea (“linen thread”), itself from līnum (“flax”).^[8][9][10] Littré instead derives it from the old adjective ligné (“of good lineage”), itself from the noun.^[3] Cognate with Old Occitan linhada.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the first half of the 12th century, in the Oxford Psalter, for all those who descend from a person or belong to the same stock.^[5] The Larousse gives the Cambridge Psalter, about 1120, with the spelling ligniee.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Unlike lignage, lignée names only a person's descendants.^[11] Old texts use it of royal and humble lines alike: Commynes writes of the lignée royale d'Angleterre and of a man de petite lignée.^[3] From 1273 (Adenet) it could also mean race or quality of birth.^[2] It is also said of animals.^[3][2]

The word lives on in the figurative sense of a spiritual descent, especially in the phrase dans la lignée de,^[11][7] and in scientific uses in biology (1907) and in ethnology.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Ligniee is used in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2][11]
• First half of the 12th century – It appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[5]
• 13th century – The spelling lignée is found.^[2]
• 1273 – Adenet uses it for race or birth.^[2]
• 1907 – It takes a sense in biology.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The descendants of a person, their line or lineage: la lignée des Martin.^[7][5][1]
2. (biology) A population coming from one source, a strain.^[7]
3. (figurative) A spiritual filiation: dans la lignée de, in the tradition of.^[7][11]

Related words

• ligne
• lignage
• aligner
• lin
• Latin līnea

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
5. ^ a b c d 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. ^ 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 350a
11. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert