majeur

Forms

majeur (feminine majeure, masculine plural majeurs, feminine plural majeures)^[1] Middle French majour (about 1354); Old French maior, maieur.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The TLFi, Rey and Bloch and Wartburg treat it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin maior (“greater, larger”), the comparative of magnus (“great”);^[2][3][5] Medieval Latin used the word for one who has come of age (1225) and in logic.^[2][3] The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and the GLLF instead take it as a form of Old French maieur, the oblique case of maire (“greater”), inherited from the Latin accusative maiōrem.^[4][6][7] Because ⟨j⟩ was written ⟨i⟩ until the 16th century, it is hard to say when the consonant began to be pronounced.^[2][3][5]

Rey analyses the Latin form as Proto-Indo-European *mag-yo-s, from a root also seen in Hittite mekki (“many”) and Old Norse mjǫk (“much”).^[3] The form ⟨major⟩ used of a tierce at cards from 1661 to 1878 may be borrowed from Spanish tercera mayor.^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan majer, Spanish mayor and Italian maggiore.^[4][8] Its doublets are maire, major and maïeur.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old French already had major in Terre major, the name for France in the Chanson de Roland, and majour for an elder brother in the Brut.^[8] The learned form is first found about 1354 in the Modus et Ratio, as a noun of logic, the major premise of a syllogism.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word ousted the older popular forms maire, maieur and maior.^[3] Gace de la Buigne used it in music in 1377,^[2][3] a use spread by mode majeur (1671) and tierce majeure (1690).^[3][7] In the sense “greater” it survives mainly in la majeure partie (1564),^[3][2] whence en majeure partie in the 20th century,^[3] and in religion in excommunication majeure (1636) and ordres majeurs (1701).^[2][3] Force majeure “irresistible force” (1690) gave it the value “of exceptional importance”.^[3][2]

Like its opposite mineur, it has meant a person who has reached the age of majority since 1549, continuing the Latinism les majeurs “the ancestors” (about 1120), which went out of use after the 17th century.^[3][2] The noun for the middle finger (1907) revives a physical sense that Old French maire once had.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1354 – Majour, the major premise, in Modus et Ratio.^[2]
• 1377 – Gace de la Buigne uses it in music.^[2]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records it for a person of full age.^[2][3]
• 1564 – La maieur partie is recorded by Thierry.^[2]
• 1636 – Excommunication majeure is recorded by Monet.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records force majeure and tierce majeure.^[2]
• 1907 – Le majeur “middle finger” is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Greater, larger, more important; opposite of mineur: la majeure partie “the greater part”, en majeure partie.^[6][7]
2. (religion) Ordres majeurs: the higher holy orders, and excommunication majeure.^[6][7]
3. (logic) Of the term of a syllogism that is the predicate of the conclusion, or the premise that contains it.^[6][2]
4. (music) major: of an interval, key or mode, as tierce majeure, mode majeur.^[6][7]
5. Of great importance, main, essential: force majeure.^[6][1]
6. Who has reached the legal age of majority; of age^[6][1], familiarly majeur et vacciné “old enough to know what one is doing”.^[6]

Noun

1. An adult in law.^[1][6]
2. The middle finger.^[9][2]
3. (logic, feminine) La majeure: the major premise of a syllogism.^[6][2]

Related words

• maire
• major
• maïeur
• mineur
• majorité
• Latin maior

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 t u v 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 p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)