méthode

Forms

méthode f (plural méthodes)^[1] The Académie spelled it methode in 1694 and 1718, and méthode from 1740.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin methodus (“method”), a scientific term of medicine, geometry and rhetoric.^[2][3][4] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μέθοδος (méthodos, “pursuit, inquiry, method”), from μετά (metá, “after, in quest of”) and ὁδός (hodós, “road, way”).^[2][5][3] The Greek word meant first “a following after, pursuit”, then “inquiry”, “methodical treatise” and “scientific doctrine”: from the road taken it came to mean the road to be taken.^[2][3]

Rey traces the Greek word for “road” to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to go”), which cannot be identified for certain with the root meaning “to sit”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1537, in Jean Canappe's French version of Galen's Therapeutics, as a medical term: a particular way of applying a treatment.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Very soon the word meant a set of reasoned procedures on which an art or practice rests: Rabelais has hors toute méthode in 1546.^[2][3] In 1547 it was applied to teaching.^[2][3] In the 17th century it took a philosophical sense with Descartes's Discours de la méthode (1637), and in technical use came close to “procedure, means”;^[2][3][6] Corneille used it in 1643 for a way of doing things, a habit.^[2][3][6] Under Descartes's influence it spread into everyday speech, where it weakened and sometimes took on a pejorative shade.^[3]

By metonymy it named a book setting out a method, especially a textbook for learning (1680).^[3][6] Natural history used it for a system of classification: Adanson distinguished natural and artificial methods in 1763.^[2][3] From there it came to mean order in any activity, as in avec méthode, sans méthode.^[3]

English method was borrowed from Latin in the early 15th century, first for the systematic treatment of disease.^[7]

Timeline

• 1537 – Canappe uses it as a medical term.^[2][3]
• 1546 – Rabelais writes hors toute méthode in the Tiers Livre.^[2]
• 1547 – Jean Martin uses it for a way of teaching.^[2]
• 1637 – Descartes publishes the Discours de la méthode.^[2][3]
• 1643 – Corneille's Le Menteur uses it for a way of doing things, a habit.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet records it for a book that teaches a method.^[6]
• 1763 – Adanson applies it to the classification of plants.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The course the mind follows to discover and prove the truth in a science; the approach proper to a discipline: la méthode expérimentale.^[8][6]
2. Order governing an activity; orderliness: elle travaille avec méthode.^[8][5][9]
3. A set of procedures or a technique for doing something: une nouvelle méthode de calcul.^[8][10]
4. A book that teaches the rudiments of a subject, a textbook: une méthode de piano.^[8][1][6]
5. (computing) In object-oriented programming, a method.^[1]

Related words

• méthodique
• Latin methodus
• English method

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)