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mobile

Etymology and origin of the French word mobile

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1301, bien meuble
Borrowed from
Latin mobilis
Ultimate origin
Latin (moveō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin mobilis
French mobile

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mɔ.bil/[1]

Forms

mobile (plural mobiles)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mōbilis (“movable; changeable, fickle”),[2][3][4][5] a contraction of “*movibilis”, from moveō (“to move”).[2][3][6] The same Latin word, inherited, gave meuble, of which “mobile” is a learned doublet.[3][6][1] In Latin “res mobiles” were movable goods, and Late Latin had the noun “mobile”, plural “mobilia”, Scholastic Latin had “mobile primum”, the outermost heavenly sphere (about 1250).[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A Breton ordinance of 1301 has the noun mobile “movable property”, an isolated use;[2][3] the adjective, “that can be moved”, appears in Oresme's Livre du ciel et du monde (1377).[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In medieval astronomy premier mouvable (about 1380) gave way to mobile premier (1448) and premier mobile (1516), calques of the Latin;[2][3][8] from these came mobile for the prime mover of an action: the leading spirit of a war (1662), and premier mobile “what impels someone to act” (La Fontaine, 1682).[2][3] The Académie has mobile alone in 1740, and it became the usual word for a motive, especially in law (le mobile du crime, 1883).[2][3] A body in motion is a mobile from 1639 (Mersenne, after Galileo), and Sartre's Les Mobiles de Calder (1946) took up the name, given by Marcel Duchamp to Calder's sculptures in 1932.[2][3]

The adjective was applied to printing type (caractères mobiles, 1751), to movable feasts (fête mobile, 1636) and to the sliding scale of wages (échelle mobile, 1952);[2][3] militarily it gave colonne mobile (1823), garde mobile (1829) and gendarmerie mobile (1877).[2] From 1448 it also meant “changeable, fickle”, and, from 1749 “always moving” (Buffon's la face mobile de la mer).[2][3] Today un mobile is also a mobile phone, short for téléphone mobile.[1][9]

Timeline

  • 1301 – Mobile “movable property”.[2]
  • 1377 – The adjective, in Oresme.[2]
  • 1448 – Mobile premier, “changeable”.[2]
  • 1509 – Mobilier.[4]
  • 1636 – Fête mobile.[2]
  • 1639 – “Body in motion”, in Mersenne.[2]
  • 1682 – Premier mobile “motive”, in La Fontaine.[2]
  • 1740 – Mobile “motive”, in the Académie.[2]
  • 1829 – Garde mobile.[2]
  • 1946 – Les Mobiles de Calder in Sartre.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Mobile, movable: pièce mobile, cloison mobile, téléphone mobile.[9][1]
  2. Variable: fête mobile, échelle mobile des salaires.[9][2]
  3. (military) Mobile: colonne mobile, garde mobile.[9][2]
  4. Always moving, changing: un visage mobile, population mobile.[9][2]

Noun

  1. A motive: le mobile du crime.[10][1]
  2. (physics) A moving body.[10][1]
  3. A mobile (hanging sculpture or decoration).[10][1]
  4. A mobile phone.[1][10]

Word family

  • mobilier
  • immobilier
  • mobiliser
  • automobile
  • mobilité
  • immobile

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 s t u v w x 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 3a
  6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  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 c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Mobile.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/mobile. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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