Etymologically
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monde

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mɔ̃d/[1]

Forms

monde m (plural mondes)[1] Old French mont, mund (about 980), the inherited form, then monde (about 1131–1135).[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mundus (“the world; the universe”), a semi-learned form that replaced Old French mont, the inherited outcome of the same Latin word, which was common in the 12th and 13th centuries but gave way, largely because it clashed with mont “mountain”.[2][4][1][5]

The Latin noun first meant a chest or casket, especially the one in which a bride brought her trousseau; some etymologists connect it with the name of an Etruscan goddess of adornment, “Munthukh”.[2] It came to mean “woman's toilet, finery”, probably under the influence of the adjective mundus (“clean, elegant”), and was then chosen to name the universe in imitation of Ancient Greek κόσμος (kósmos, “order, ornament; world”), which had followed the same path.[2][3][6] In imperial Latin it was narrowed to the earth and its people, and Church Latin opposed it to heaven, with the sense “profane, worldly”.[2][4]

Cognate with Italian mondo, Catalan món, Spanish mundo and Portuguese mundo.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1135 in the Couronnement de Louis in the sense “the whole of created things”; the inherited mont is found in Wace's Vie de sainte Marguerite (1135) for the globe of the earth (les homes de cest mont).[7]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts monde meant both creation as a whole, as in depuis que le monde est monde (1549), and the earth, le Nouveau Monde (1516) arose from the great voyages of discovery, and l'Ancien Monde followed (1690).[2][7] Birth and death gave venir au monde (1560), mettre au monde (1671) and l'autre monde (1585).[7][2]

By about 1145 the word meant human society, and later a social group (1589) and, with the court society, the fashionable world of luxury and amusement (about 1584): le grand monde (1640), homme du monde (1644).[7][2] The vague sense “people” is old: toz li mon “everyone” (1135) is the ancestor of tout le monde, and du monde “people” dates from 1530, Bloch and Wartburg trace it to Latin, where the Vulgate already has totus mundus.[2][7][4] French-based creoles formed timoun “child” from petit monde.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 980 – Inherited Old French mund.[3]
  • c. 1135 – Monde “all created things”, in the Couronnement de Louis.[7]
  • c. 1145 – “Human society”, in Wace.[7]
  • 1516 – Le Nouveau Monde “America”.[7]
  • 1530 – Du monde “people”.[7][2]
  • 1560 – Venir au monde.[7]
  • c. 1584 – “Fashionable society”, in Brantôme.[7]
  • 1640 – Le grand monde.[7]
  • 1690 – L'Ancien Monde.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The world, the universe, all that exists.[7][1]
  2. The earth, the globe; a part of it: faire le tour du monde, le Nouveau Monde.[7][2]
  3. Mankind, the human community: l'histoire du monde.[7][2]
  4. People: du monde, beaucoup de monde, tout le monde, everyone.[1][2]
  5. A sphere, milieu: le monde des affaires.[7]
  6. Fashionable society: le grand monde, un homme du monde.[7][2]
  7. (religion) Secular life, as opposed to religious life.[4][2]

Interjection

  1. (Louisiana) Good heavens![1]

Word family

  • demi-monde
  • mondial
  • tiers-monde

Usage notes

An archaic adjective monde “pure, clean” (12th century, munde about 1155), from Latin mundus “clean, refined”, is a separate word, Littré regretted that its use had become so restricted.[3][6][1] The same adjective is behind immonde and émonder.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d 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, 218a
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ 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