localité

Forms

localité f (plural localités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French local + -ité.^[2][3][4][1] The Grand Robert compares Late Latin localitās,^[3] and the GLLF gives that Late Latin word as a possible source but prefers a learned derivative of the adjective;^[5] Rey instead treats the noun as borrowed from the Late Latin word.^[6] The adjective itself was borrowed from Late Latin localis (“relating to a place”), a derivative of locus (“place”).^[7][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1590 in Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde's Des différends de la religion, meaning a place or spot.^[2][3][5] In this general sense it was used until the 17th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

During the Revolution, when the noun local and the verb localiser took their modern senses, localité came to mean, mostly in the plural, the local circumstances or particular features of a place (1790).^[6][2] The Académie recorded this sense in 1798, saying that certain laws must be adapted to the localités.^[9] It also had a philosophical sense, the property of finite beings of occupying a place (1802), and a technical sense in painting (1803, recorded by Boiste in 1823), matching couleur locale; neither lasted.^[6][2]

From 1816 the word named a delimited part of a region and, above all, a small town or village, its usual sense today.^[2][6] In botany and zoology it meant the area where a species is found (1816), a use that has given way to localisation.^[6] Bloch and Wartburg date the modern sense to 1810.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1590 – Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde uses it for “a place, a spot”.^[2]
• 1738 – D'Argenson uses it for local memory, the memory of places.^[2]
• 1790 – The plural is used in the Moniteur for the particular features of a place.^[2][6]
• 1798 – The Académie records the sense “local circumstance”.^[9]
• 1802 – Bonald uses it as a term of philosophy.^[2]
• 1816 – Maine de Biran uses it for a small town or village.^[2][6]
• 1823 – Boiste records it as a painting term.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small town or village.^[4][2]
2. A given place.^[4]
3. (dated) A local circumstance or particularity, the features peculiar to a place; often plural.^[4][2][8]
4. (dated, philosophy) The property of a being of occupying a place in space.^[2][8][5]
5. (painting, obsolete) The quality of a colour suited only to a particular place.^[8]

Related words

• local
• localiser
• localisation
• lieu¹
• Latin locus

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Académie française (1798), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 5th ed., Paris: Smits