mendier

Forms

mendier^[1] Old French mendeier, then mendier from about 1120.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French mendeier, inherited from Latin mendīcō (“to beg”).^{[2][3][1][5][6]} The Latin verb is derived from mendīcus (“poor, needy, beggar”),^[2][3] itself from mendum (“bodily defect, fault”), which also lies behind amender;^[3][7] the first sense of the adjective was probably “having bodily defects, infirm”, whence “poor” and “beggar”.^[3] The origin of the noun is unknown; the only Indo-European comparison Rey offers is a Welsh word for a bodily blemish.^[3]

Cognate with Italian mendicare, Old Occitan mendigar, Catalan mendigar, Spanish mendigar and Portuguese mendigar.^[8][2] Old French also had mendi “beggar”, from the Latin adjective, in use until the 16th century, when it gave way to mendiant.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1100 as mendeier in the Chanson de Roland (Ne nus seiuns cunduiz a mendeier, “may we not be brought to begging”), meaning to ask for alms.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb was first intransitive.^[2][3] Used transitively, it meant “to beg humbly, entreat” before 1248 (Huon de Cambrai), “to ask for as alms” in 1553 (the Gérard Bible), and, with a scornful edge, “to stoop to soliciting” before 1563, as in La Boétie's mendians sa faveur.^[2][3][9] Rey notes that this pejorative sense is absent from Old French, where begging was bound up with Christian charity.^[3]

Its present participle mendiant became an adjective before 1191 and a noun at the end of the 12th century;^[3] moine mendiant dates from about 1278 and the mendicant orders, Augustinians, Franciscans, Carmelites and Dominicans, from 1350.^[3] About 1600 les quatre mendiants was jokingly applied to a dessert of four dried fruits, figs, hazelnuts, almonds and raisins.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Mendeier in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][3]
• c. 1120 – The form mendier in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2][4]
• before 1248 – Used transitively for “to entreat”, in Huon de Cambrai.^[2]
• c. 1278 – Moine mendiant is recorded.^[3]
• 1553 – “To ask for as alms”, in the Gérard Bible.^[2][4]
• before 1563 – La Boétie uses it for servile soliciting.^[2][9]
• c. 1600 – Les quatre mendiants names a dessert of dried fruits.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To beg, to ask for alms or charity.^[10][2]
2. (transitive) To ask for something as alms: mendier son pain.^[10][4][9]
3. (figurative) To ask for something humbly, or (pejorative) to solicit it in a servile, humiliating way: mendier des compliments.^[10][4]

Word family

• mendiant
• mendieur

Related words

• amender
• Latin mendīcus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 704a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert