mosquée

Forms

mosquée f (plural mosquées)^[1] Middle French musquette (1351), mesquite (about 1380 to 1654), muscat (1395), mousquaie (1423) and musquée (1457); the modern spelling mosquée appears in 1550.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg also record mosquez in 1506.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian moscheta (“mosque”) (recorded from the 14th century), earlier meschita in Dante and Medieval Latin meskita.^[2][3] The Italian word was in turn borrowed from Spanish mezquita (from 1140, in the Cid), which matches Medieval Latin meschita of the late 11th century.^[2][3] That word was taken over at the time of the First Crusade, through Byzantine Greek or Armenian, from Arabic مَسْجِد (masjid, “place of prostration, place of worship”),^[2][3][1] from the root meaning “to worship”.^[3][5] Bloch and Wartburg add that the Arabic word may itself be borrowed from Nabataean.^[4]

The form mousquaie (1423) and the modern form reflect moschea (from the 15th century), an altered form of the older Italian word,^[2][3][6] while mesquite reproduces the Spanish word.^[2][4] The forms with /u/ were probably influenced by musc “musk”, the scent that mosques are often filled with.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first French form, musquette, is found in 1351 in Jean le Long's translation of the account of Odoric of Pordenone's travels, a Latin text written by an Italian monk; it means a Muslim temple.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed the same from the start; the history of the word is one of competing forms brought back by travellers to the East: musquette and mesquite in the 14th century, mousquaie and musquée in the 15th, until mosquée prevailed from the 1550s.^[3][2] Ronsard still wrote mosquetes in 1564.^[2][5]

The English word mosque (1717, earlier moseak about 1400 and mosquee in the 16th century) probably comes in part from the French word.^[7]

Timeline

• 1351 – Musquette appears in Jean le Long's translation of Odoric of Pordenone.^[2]
• c. 1380 – Jean Le Fèvre uses mesquite, a form found until 1654.^[2]
• 1395 – Muscat appears in the Seigneur d'Anglure's journey to Jerusalem.^[2]
• 1423 – Ghillebert de Lannoy writes mousquaie.^[2][8]
• 1457 – Bertrandon de la Broquière writes musquée.^[2]
• 1550 – The form Mosquée appears in Jacques Gassot's account of a journey from Venice to Constantinople.^[2]
• 1553 – Belon uses mosquée, the date the Grand Robert and GLLF give for the modern form.^[8][6]
• 1717 – English mosque is recorded in its modern form.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mosque, a building devoted to Muslim worship: Le minaret de la nouvelle mosquée domine la vieille ville.^[9][2]

Related words

• musc
• Spanish mezquita
• Italian moschea
• Arabic مَسْجِد (masjid)
• English mosque

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert