mense

Forms

mense f (plural menses)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mēnsa (“table, food, dishes”).^[2][3][4] Its ecclesiastical sense had already developed in Church Latin.^[4][5] The inherited doublet of the same Latin word is moise, which took on a technical sense.^[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan mensa, Italian mensa and Spanish mesa.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rabelais used it in 1558, in the Epistre du Lymosin, in the Latin sense “table”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “table” stayed rare and literary: Chateaubriand (1810) and Hugo (1866) still used it of a table where people eat.^[2][6] From 1603 the word named the revenue set aside for the upkeep of the table of a religious community, an abbot or a bishop,^[2][7] and then, in canon law, the property assigned to a prelate or a community.^[2][4] Littré distinguishes the abbot's share (mense abbatiale), the monks' share (mense conventuelle), the share held in common (mense commune), the chapter's (mense capitulaire) and the bishop's (mense épiscopale).^[6] Larousse describes it as the part of the landed property of a bishopric or monastery set aside, in the Carolingian period, for the bishop or abbot or for the canons or monks.^[8]

Timeline

• 1558 – Rabelais uses it for a table.^[2]
• 1603 – Peleus's Actions forenses uses it for the revenue of an abbey or bishopric.^[2][4][7]
• 1810 – Chateaubriand writes of the mense hospitalière, the welcoming table.^[2]
• 1866 – Hugo uses it for the tables of the skippers and of the customs men in Les Travailleurs de la mer.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic, literary) A table where people eat.^[2][1]
2. (church history) The revenue set aside for the table of a bishop, an abbot or a religious community: mense épiscopale, mense abbatiale, mense conventuelle.^[5][6]
3. (canon law) The property assigned to a prelate or to a church community.^[4][2]

Related words

• commensal
• moise
• Latin mensa

Usage notes

It sounds the same as manse, and the Grand Robert notes that it is sometimes spelled that way.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 710b
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)