loyal

Forms

loyal (feminine loyale, masculine plural loyaux, feminine plural loyales)^[1] Old French leial (Chanson de Roland), leal and loial (12th century); the spelling loyal is found about 1360 in Froissart.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French leial, inherited from Latin lēgālis (“according to law”), from lēx (“law”).^[2][4][5][6] The same Latin word was later borrowed as légal, so the two are doublets.^[4][7][1] The Medieval Latin lēgālis already meant “usual, normal” (815).^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan leial, Catalan lleal, Spanish leal and Italian leale.^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) leial describes a man of honour and integrity, a value of the chivalric world.^[2][4] Littré quotes la leial compagnie from the poem.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The legal sense “of good quality, lawful” is recorded from 1183–1189 in Beneit's life of Thomas Becket.^[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg say it lasted until the 17th century; it was then left to légal, and survives only in a few phrases of commercial law such as loyaux coûts.^[5][4]

In the 17th century the moral sense was rare: Richelet found loyal a little old and more at home in burlesque writing, and Furetière left it out, but the Académie kept it in 1694, and it came back at the end of the 18th century.^[2][4] A cheval loyal is a horse that does not resist (1678).^[2][4] The political sense “faithful to the king, to the legitimate authority”, used by Chateaubriand in 1827, was borrowed from English loyal and did not last.^[2][4] The popular phrase à la loyale “without cheating” dates from 1926.^[4]

The French word passed into English as loyal in the 1530s; the older English borrowing of the same word is leal.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Leial “honourable, upright” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1183–1189 – Leal means “of good quality, lawful” in Beneit's Thomas Becket.^[2]
• c. 1360 – The spelling loyal appears in Froissart.^[3]
• 1530s – English borrows the word as loyal.^[9]
• 1678 – Cheval loyal is recorded of a docile horse.^[2]
• 1694 – The Académie keeps the moral sense.^[2]
• 1827 – Chateaubriand uses it for “faithful to the king”, after English.^[2][4]
• 1926 – À la loyale is first recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Faithful to one's commitments and true to the rules of honour and probity.^[10][1]
2. Fair and honest, as an opponent or in business.^[10][1]
3. (dated) In accordance with the law, now only in commercial law: qualité loyale et marchande, loyaux coûts “legitimate costs” of a sale.^[10][2]
4. (of a horse) Docile, that does not resist.^[2]

Word family

• déloyal
• loyalement
• loyauté

Related words

• loi
• légal
• Latin lēgālis
• English loyal

Usage notes

À la loyale “fairly, without tricks” is popular in tone (se battre à la loyale).^[4][1] Bons et loyaux services is a set phrase for long, faithful service.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 239b
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert