Etymologically
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loin

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 14:03. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /lwɛ̃/[1]

Forms

loin[1] Old French luinz, loinz, luign, loing; the final -z may reflect a Latin *longis.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French loing, inherited from Latin longē (“far, far off; by far”), from longus (“long”), whence long.[2][5][6][7][1] With a verb of difference, Latin “longē” also meant “by far”.[2]

Cognate with Italian lungi, Occitan luenh, Catalan lluny and archaic Spanish lueñe.[6][1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1050 the Vie de saint Alexis has an luinz “into the distance”: E tantes feiz pur tei an luinz guardét “and so often I looked far away for you”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Loin de and ne loinz ne près are in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), and de loin in Philippe de Thaon (1119).[2] The temporal sense, “long ago”, appears about 1225.[2][5] De loin en loin goes back to Old French luinz a luinz (1119); its temporal use dates from 1620.[2]

From the 17th century loin was used abstractly: voir de loin (1640), aller trop loin (1661), revenir de loin (1672), loin de moi l'idée de.[2][5][9] Loin de with an infinitive meant “instead of” in Corneille (1640), and loin que with the subjunctive is in Molière (1666).[2] In Swiss French être loin means “to be away”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – An luinz in the Vie de saint Alexis.[2]
  • c. 1100 – Loin de in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • 1119 – De luinz and luinz a luinz in Philippe de Thaon.[2]
  • c. 1225 – The temporal sense.[2]
  • 1530 – Il y a loin d'ici à.[2]
  • 1640 – Voir de loin.[2]
  • 1672 – Revenir de loin.[9]
  • 1762 – De loin en loin.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. far, far away: habiter loin, plus loin.[10][1]
  2. Far off in time: c'est loin tout cela.[11]
  3. Loin de: far from, loin de là: far from it, loin de moi l'idée de: far be it from me.[2][5]
  4. De loin: from afar; by far: de loin le meilleur.[2][5]
  5. Aller loin: to go far, succeed, aller trop loin: to go too far.[5]
  6. De loin en loin: here and there; now and then.[2]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 401b
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)