maire

Forms

maire m or f by sense (plural maires, feminine maire or mairesse)^[1] Old French maire, from the Latin nominative, beside maieur, from the accusative; the two forms lost their case values early.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include mair, mere, meor and maour.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French maire (“greater”), an adjective first found about 1165 and used as a noun from about 1170, inherited from Latin maior (“greater”), the nominative of the comparative of magnus (“great”).^[6][3][2] The Old French accusative form maieur, from maiōrem, competed with it and was still recorded by Cotgrave in 1611.^[6][2] Littré explains the split by the stress, on the first syllable in the nominative and on the second in the accusative, which also gave the Old French forms maior and meor.^[5]

The noun sense comes from Medieval Latin, where maior meant a local judge or village mayor (977) and the mayor of a commune (1136); these grew out of the older sense of a steward of a domain (early 6th century), and Late Latin already used the word for a chief or leading person in the 4th century, in line with the sense of respect and authority in the adjective for “great”.^[6][3] The title of the Merovingian mayors of the palace translates the Merovingian Latin maior palatii (“head of the palace”).^[2] The learned borrowing major comes from the same Latin word.^[3][3][1]

Cognate with Italian maggiore, Old Occitan maire, Spanish mayor, Catalan major and Portuguese maior.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun it is first found about 1170 in Guillaume d'Angleterre, for the man who headed the municipal body of a town;^[6] the adjective maire “greater” is a little older (about 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie).^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the maire was the first officer of a town's municipal body in the villes de commune, and under the Ancien Régime the word named various officers of the same kind.^[3][2] The adjective sense “greater” faded completely, surviving only in a few old phrases such as juge maire.^[5] From 1573 maire du palais named the chief steward of the royal household under the Merovingians, who took over the government of the kingdom.^[6][3][5]

The modern administrative sense, the elected head of the municipal council, dates from the Revolution and was fixed by the decree of 14 December 1789.^[2][3][6] In Paris, from 1873 to 1975, the maire of each arrondissement was an officer appointed by decree.^[3] The mayor's role in civil marriage gave the familiar phrase passer devant (monsieur) le maire “to get married”.^[3][8] For a woman holding the office French usage first preferred Madame le maire, later also la maire;^[3][6][9] mairesse, once “the mayor's wife”, is more usual in Quebec French.^[3][6][9] In Belgium the old form survives as maïeur or mayeur, a synonym of bourgmestre.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – The adjective maire “greater” appears in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[6]
• c. 1170 – First use as a noun for the head of a town's municipal body, in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[6]
• 13th century – Mairie and mairesse are formed from it.^[3][6]
• 1573 – Du Puys records maire du palais.^[6][10]
• 1611 – Cotgrave still records the old form maieur.^[6]
• 1789 – The decree of 14 December gives the word its modern administrative sense.^[3][2]
• 1873 – In Paris, appointed mayors of the arrondissements are introduced, a system lasting until 1975.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mayor: in France, the first municipal officer, elected by the conseil municipal from among its members, at once a local authority and an agent of the state.^[8][11][9]
2. Monsieur le maire, Madame le maire or la maire: forms of address and reference for the holder of the office.^[8][9]
3. Maire d'arrondissement: a mayor elected in each arrondissement of Paris, Lyon and Marseille.^[11]
4. (history) Maire du palais: the mayor of the palace, the high officer who governed under the Merovingian kings.^[11][9][6]
5. (history) The head of the municipal body of a medieval commune.^[8][10]
6. (familiar, dated) Passer devant le maire: to get married.^[8][3]

Word family

• mairie
• mairesse

Related words

• majeur
• major
• maïeur
• majordome
• Latin maior

Usage notes

In Belgium and Switzerland the corresponding officer is the bourgmestre.^[9] Wiktionary also records a separate dialect adjective maire, a variant of maigre “thin”, from Latin macer.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)