merveille

Forms

merveille f (plural merveilles)^[1] Old French merveile (about 1050) and mervoille.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include mervaille, mervelle and merville.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *miribilia, altered by assimilation from Latin mīrābilia (“wonderful things”), the neuter plural of mīrābilis (“admirable, wonderful”) used as a noun.^[5][3][6][7] The Church used the plural especially for miracles or great deeds, and it came to be treated as a feminine singular.^[5][3][2] According to Bloch and Wartburg the change took place in the Latin of northern Gaul, where the ⟨a⟩ was assimilated to the two ⟨i⟩ around it.^[7] The GLLF gives the popular form as *miravelia, and Meyer-Lübke posits *merabilia and notes that the Romance ⟨e⟩ is not explained.^[2][8]

The adjective comes from mīror (“to wonder at, admire”), from mīrus (“wonderful, strange”).^[2][9][3] Rey notes that this last word has been compared with Indo-European words meaning “to smile”, such as English smile, though the Latin sense fits them poorly.^[3]

Cognate with Italian meraviglia, Occitan meravelha, Catalan meravella, Spanish maravilla and Portuguese maravilha.^[9][8][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) it means something that strikes one with astonishment.^[5][3] The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has avoir grant merveille de “to marvel greatly at”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word had all its present uses by the Middle Ages, but the old language stressed astonishment, which could even be tinged with horror (12th–13th century), while modern usage stresses admiration, as in les Sept Merveilles du monde (about 1155).^[3] Old French c'est merveille meant “it is most surprising”, the sense kept in the title Alice au pays des merveilles, which translates English Alice in Wonderland.^[3][9]

The old adverb merveilles “astonishingly” (early 12th century) has disappeared, but it survives in à merveille (about 1165), which passed through the sense “extremely” (16th century) to its modern sense “perfectly”.^[3][5] From about 1165 the noun also named an extraordinary deed, in Old French a bad one as well as a good one.^[3][5] Faire merveille is recorded from about 1175 and conter monts et merveilles from about 1580.^[3]

The sense “light fritter” appears in the 18th century and is still used regionally, especially in the south-west of France and in Provence.^[3][5][11] Old French merveille was borrowed into English as marvel about 1300.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – First recorded in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[5][3]
• c. 1100 – Avoir grant merveille de in the Chanson de Roland.^[5]
• Early 12th century – The adverb merveilles in the Voyage of Saint Brendan.^[5]
• c. 1155 – The Seven Wonders of the world are named.^[3]
• c. 1165 – À merveille and the sense “extraordinary deed” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[5]
• c. 1175 – Faire merveille is recorded.^[3]
• c. 1300 – English marvel is borrowed from Old French.^[12]
• 1557 – Les sept Merveilles in Olivier de Magny.^[5]
• c. 1580 – Conter monts et merveilles is recorded.^[3]
• 1754 – The sense “fritter” appears.^[3]
• 1761 – Rousseau uses it of a kind of cake in La Nouvelle Héloïse.^[5][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) An inexplicable or supernatural event; a miracle, a prodige.^[9][5]
2. Something that arouses intense admiration: les Sept Merveilles du monde.^[13][9][10]
3. Faire merveille: to work wonders, to be remarkably effective.^[13]
4. À merveille: perfectly, wonderfully: elle danse à merveille.^[13][3]
5. (regional, cooking) A light fritter of fried dough.^[13][3][11]

Word family

• merveilleux
• émerveiller
• émerveillement

Related words

• mirer
• miracle
• Latin mīrābilis

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 e f g h i j k l m n 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
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)