Etymologically
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magasin

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ma.ɡa.zɛ̃/[1]

Forms

magasin m (plural magasins)[1] Middle French maguesin (1389), magasin from 1409.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic مَخَازِن (maḵāzin), the plural of مَخْزَن (maḵzan, “storehouse”),[2][3][4][5][6] from the verb خَزَنَ (ḵazana, “to store, amass”).[1][7] It came either through Provençal or as borrowed from Italian magazzino (from 1308).[2][3][5][1] Medieval Latin magazenum appears in 1228 in a law on contracts allowing the merchants of Marseille to keep warehouses in the ports of the Maghreb (Bloch and Wartburg: 1229, at Bougie), when the word still applied only to warehouses in North African towns.[2][4] The singular came back at the end of the 19th century as maghzen, the government of the sultan of Morocco.[4]

Compare Spanish almacén and Portuguese armazém, with the Arabic article.[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Mézières's Songe du vieil pelerin (1389) uses maguesin for a storehouse for goods; the Livre des faits of Marshal Boucicaut (1409) has magasin for the shops of the Saracens.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Ronsard (1562) uses it figuratively and Montaigne has faire magasin “to lay in a store” (1580) and le magasin de la memoire.[2][7] The sense “storehouse” lives on, especially in the army (Bossuet, 1669); in everyday French it is now rare except in African French.[2][3] The magazine of a firearm (1873) and of a camera (1912) continue the same idea.[2][3]

Before 1615 the word began to name a place of sale, distinct from boutique as a wholesale house (marchand en magasin, Furetière, 1690); the distinction blurred in the 18th century (1723), and in the 19th magasin replaced boutique for a large shop.[2][3] Grand magasin “department store” (1883, Zola) followed the founding of the Bon Marché (1852), the Louvre (1855) and the Printemps (1865).[3][9] The clipped magase appears in writing about 1940.[3]

Timeline

  • 1228 – Medieval Latin magazenum, Marseille.[2]
  • 1389 – Maguesin, Philippe de Mézières.[2]
  • 1409 – Magasin, Livre des faits of Boucicaut.[2]
  • 1580 – Faire magasin, Montaigne.[2]
  • Before 1615 – A place of sale, Étienne Pasquier.[2]
  • 1669 – Military storehouse, Bossuet.[2]
  • 1692 – magasinier.[3]
  • 1762 – emmagasiner.[4]
  • 1873 – Magazine of a firearm.[2]
  • 1883 – Grand magasin.[3]
  • 1912 – Magazine of a camera.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shop, store: magasin de chaussures, grand magasin, department store, courir les magasins.[10][1]
  2. A storehouse, warehouse, en magasin, in stock.[10][1]
  3. (military) A store for arms, munitions or supplies.[10][2]
  4. The magazine of a firearm; the magazine of a camera.[2][1]
  5. (Louisiana) A barn.[1]

Word family

  • magasinage
  • magasinier
  • emmagasiner
  • magasiner
  • arrière-magasin

Usage notes

The Grand Robert gives a numbered entry of its own to magasin in the sense of English magazine (1650), a word of the same origin.[5] In Quebec French magasiner means “to go shopping”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 114a
  7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert