menace

Forms

menace f (plural menaces)^[1] Old French manatce (about 880), manace (about 1100) and menace (about 1160); Anglo-Norman also manasse.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French manace, inherited from Vulgar Latin *minācia (“threat”), found in the plural as early as Plautus and above all in Late Latin.^[2][5][6][7] The word is derived, through the adjective mināx (“threatening”), from the classical plural minae (“threats”), which it replaced.^[3][5] The Latin noun first meant projecting parts of a wall or rock, overhangs; from “things hanging over” it passed to “threats”, an image Rey compares to the sword of Damocles, and it is probably related to mōns (“mountain”), as in éminent and imminent.^[3] The early forms with /a/ come from the assimilation of the unstressed /e/ to the stressed /a/.^[2][3]

Cognate with Italian minaccia, Catalan menassa, Spanish amenaza and Portuguese ameaça.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, manatce in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (about 880), is a word or gesture showing someone one's anger: Por manatce regiel ne preiemen “not for the king's threat or entreaty”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was said only of words or gestures by people;^[3][2] menaces en l'air “idle threats” is in Corneille (1662).^[3][2] By extension it came to mean the signs that make one fear an event, a disaster or an illness (Montaigne, about 1580–90), and then a danger in general.^[2][10][3] The Anglo-Norman manace also named a writ charging someone with having threatened the plaintiff.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 880 – Manatce in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Manaces in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The form menace in the Roman d'Énéas.^[2]
• c. 1580 – Montaigne uses it of signs that foretell a misfortune.^[10][2]
• 1662 – Corneille's menaces en l'air.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A threat: a word or act by which someone shows the intention to do harm, to intimidate: céder à la menace.^[11][2]
2. Menaces en l'air: idle threats, sous la menace: under duress.^[11][10]
3. A sign that announces something to be feared: une menace d'orage.^[11][9]
4. A danger or a person or thing seen as one: une menace pour la paix.^[11][2]

Related words

• menacer
• menaçant
• imminent
• Latin minae

References

1. ^ a b 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 d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2, 98b
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert