milice

Pronunciation

• IPA: /mi.lis/^[1]

Forms

milice f (plural milices)^[1] Milicie (1371–1372, Oresme), militie in the 16th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mīlitia (“military service; campaign”), from mīles (“soldier”),^[2][5][3][6] a word of unknown origin, perhaps borrowed from Etruscan.^[5] In Church Latin “militia” was also applied to the heavenly host, the angels.^[2][5] “Milice” replaced the earlier learned form “milicie”, used by Oresme in 1371 for “military organisation”.^[2][5]

Compare militaire and militer, of the same origin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brantôme's Discours sur les duels (about 1578) uses it for the handling of arms.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Cotgrave (1611) has it for the art of war and in celestielle milice, the angels;^[2][5] in 1617 it meant a body of troops, an army, now only in the literary style.^[2][5] From 1636 it named the troops of citizens raised in the communes to support the regular army, which had existed since at least the 14th century, and, from the late 17th century the levies of peasants and townsmen.^[5][3][2]

In the 19th century it was used of citizen soldiers in countries without a standing army (1874), and in 1937 Malraux used it of the militias of the Spanish Civil War.^[2][5] After the Italian milizia of Mussolini (1922), la Milice was the paramilitary force created by Vichy on 3 January 1943;^[5][2] the word is also used of unofficial groups providing security for a movement or employers.^[5] In Belgium milice meant military service, and in Switzerland de milice means “formed of non-professionals”.^[5] The derivative milicien dates from 1725.^[3]

Timeline

• 1371 – Milicie in Oresme.^[2]
• c. 1578 – Milice “handling of arms”, in Brantôme.^[2]
• 1611 – “Art of war”, celestielle milice, in Cotgrave.^[2]
• 1617 – “Army”.^[2]
• 1636 – A citizen militia.^[2]
• 1725 – Milicien.^[3]
• 1937 – The militias of the Spanish Civil War, in Malraux.^[2]
• 1943 – The Vichy Milice.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A militia: a force of citizens raised to support or replace a regular army: milices populaires.^[7][1]
2. A paramilitary force, (history) la Milice: the Vichy militia (1943–1944).^[7][8]
3. (history) Town or provincial levies: milices communales, milices bourgeoises.^[7][9]
4. (Belgium, dated) Military service.^[7][8]
5. (obsolete) The art of war; an army, la milice céleste: the heavenly host.^[2][7]

Word family

• milicien

Related words

• militaire
• militer
• Latin mīles
• English militia

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 n o p q r 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2, 82b
7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)