minaret

Forms

minaret m (plural minarets)^[1] First minerest (1606) or mineret, then minareler (1624, with the Turkish plural ending -ler) and minaret from 1654.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish مناره (minare),^[2][4][5][1] itself from Arabic مَنَارَة (manāra, “lighthouse, candlestick”), whence “mosque tower”, derived from a verb meaning “to shine”.^[2][6][1] The tower may have been named for its shape, or because a fire signal was once lit on mosques, as Bloch and Wartburg and Rey suggest.^[7][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as minerest in 1606, in Jean Palerne's account of his travels, for the tower of a mosque.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of its Turkish and Arabic source, the tower from which the muezzin calls Muslims to prayer.^[6] Travel accounts brought it into French: Deshayes de Courmenin's Voyage de Levant (1624) and Du Loir's Voyages (1654), which has the modern form.^[2] Littré also records it, loosely, for the Chinese towers set in landscape gardens and for a genus of univalve shells.^[9]

Timeline

• 1606 – Palerne writes minerest.^[2][6]
• 1624 – Deshayes de Courmenin writes minareler.^[2]
• 1654 – Du Loir uses the form minaret.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall, slender tower beside a mosque, from which the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer: les minarets de la vieille ville.^[5][2][4]
2. (rare) A Chinese-style tower in a landscape garden.^[9]

Related words

• muezzin
• mosquée

Usage notes

Littré notes that the final ⟨t⟩ is never pronounced or carried over in liaison, while the plural ⟨s⟩ is.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 127a
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette