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long

Etymology and origin of the French word long

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
2nd half of the 10th century, Vie de saint Léger
Inherited from
Latin longus via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin (longus)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French long
French longtemps

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /lɔ̃/[1]
  • IPA: /lɔ̃.k‿/[1]
  • IPA: /lɔ̃.ɡ‿/[1]

Forms

long (feminine longue, masculine plural longs, feminine plural longues)[1] Old French lonc, feminine longe; the feminine longue replaced longe in the 12th century, and the masculine long was remade from it in the 14th.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French lonc, inherited from Latin longus (“long, extended”).[4][5][6][7][1] The Latin word, used of both space and time like Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós), is related to Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍃 (laggs, “long”) but has no counterpart in the eastern Indo-European languages.[5] Littré found its further etymology obscure.[8]

The old feminine “longe” survives as the noun longe “halter”.[6] Cognate with Romanian lung, Italian lungo, Occitan long, Portuguese longo and English long.[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the second half of the 10th century the Vie de saint Léger uses it of time, “lasting a long while”; the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) has lunga atente “a long, wearisome wait”.[4]

Semantic evolution

The spatial sense, “of great length”, is in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), which also says of a voice mult lunge, “carrying far”.[4] Long hair or beards appear about 1160, and long speeches about 1150.[4] In grammar it qualified vowels and syllables from the 14th century.[4][5]

As a noun, set piez de lonc “seven feet long” is in Chrétien de Troyes (1176–81); de son long dates from 1464, à la longue from about 1260 and en long et en large from 1676, continuing Old French en lonc ou en lé (1230).[4][5][11] The adverb en savoir long is from before 1707.[4] In African and Middle Eastern French long also means “tall” of a person.[5]

Timeline

  • 2nd half of the 10th century – Temporal use in the Vie de saint Léger.[4]
  • c. 1050 – Lunga atente in the Vie de saint Alexis.[4]
  • c. 1100 – Spatial use in the Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • 12th century – The feminine longue replaces longe.[5][6]
  • c. 1260 – À la longue.[4]
  • 1464 – De son long.[4]
  • 1676 – En long et en large in Madame de Sévigné.[4][11]
  • 1811 – De long en large.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. long: of great length: une longue tige, une robe longue.[9][12]
  2. Of a given length: long de cent mètres.[4][13]
  3. Lasting a long time: un long voyage; tedious: le temps paraît long.[4][9]
  4. Slow: long à comprendre.[4]
  5. (phonetics) Long, of a vowel or syllable.[4]

Noun

  1. length: trois mètres de long, tomber de tout son long.[1][4]
  2. Le long de: along, de long en large: up and down.[4]

Adverb

  1. En dire long, en savoir long: to say or know a great deal.[13]

Word family

  • longe
  • loin
  • longitude
  • Latin longus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c 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, 406b
  8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  13. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Derived terms

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Long.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/long. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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