local

Forms

local (feminine locale, masculine plural locaux, feminine plural locales)^[1] Old French plural locaus in Henri de Mondeville; locals also occurs.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin locālis (“relating to a place”),^[3][4][5][1] from locus (“place”).^[6][2][1] The FEW classes it under the same Latin adjective.^[7]

The same Latin word gave Old Occitan local, Spanish local and Italian locale.^[2] The noun is a substantivation of the adjective (1731).^[3][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, about 1200 in the Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei, has it in the sense “occupying a portion of space”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1314 Henri de Mondeville applied it to remedies acting on one part of the body.^[3][6][4] Oresme used mouvement local “motion in place” about 1370 and the sense “belonging to a place or region” in his Politiques (1372–1374).^[3][2] Mémoire locale, the memory of where things are, is recorded in 1492.^[3]

Couleur locale began as a painters' term (1699) and was taken into literary criticism by La Harpe in 1772, becoming a watchword of the Romantics.^[3][4] The noun first meant a place considered in its characteristics (1731), a sense now obsolete; the modern sense “room or premises used for a given purpose” dates from 1789, as in locaux commerciaux.^[8][3][9] Mathematics took up propriété locale for a property holding at a point and its immediate surroundings (Littré, 1867).^[6][3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – First record, in the Epistola ad fratres de Monte Dei.^[3][5]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville uses it of remedies applied to one part of the body.^[3][4]
• c. 1370 – Mouvement local in Oresme.^[3]
• 1372–1374 – “Belonging to a place or region”, in Oresme's Politiques.^[3]
• 1699 – Couleur locale as a painters' term.^[3][6]
• 1731 – First use as a noun, “place, site”.^[3][8]
• 1772 – La Harpe applies couleur locale to literature.^[3][4]
• 1789 – The noun in the sense “room or premises for a purpose”, in Lavoisier.^[3][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging or peculiar to a place or region, as opposed to general or national: heure locale, la presse locale.^[9][3]
2. Affecting only one part of the body: anesthésie locale.^[9][3]
3. (dated) Occupying a determined place in space.^[3][6]
4. (mathematics) Of a property: holding at a point and its immediate neighbourhood.^[3][6]

Noun

1. A room or part of a building with a particular use, premises: Le club cherche un local plus grand.^[9][3]
2. (obsolete) A place considered in its particular features.^[9][8]

Word family

• localement
• localiser
• localisation
• localisme
• localier

Related words

• localité
• lieu¹
• Latin locus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v 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. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 386b
8. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert