mouvoir

Forms

mouvoir^[1] Old French muveir, moveir and movoir;^[2][3][1] mouvoir is found from about 1155, in Wace.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French muveir, inherited from Latin moveō (“to stir, move, push, arouse”).^[4][5][2] The Latin verb also had the moral sense “to excite, move”, like Ancient Greek κινέω (kinéō), to which it corresponds in meaning,^[2] and Rey compares it with words for “push” or “move” in Greek, Sanskrit and Lithuanian;^[2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- (“to move”).^[1] Littré explains the participle meü, now mû, from a supposed participle Vulgar Latin *movūtus.^[6] The northern dialects that kept the verb remade it as mouver, recorded from the 12th to the 16th century.^[7]

Cognate with Italian muovere, Old Occitan mover, Catalan moure, Spanish mover and Portuguese mover.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it means “to cause (harm)”: jo t'en muvrai un si grant contraire “I will cause you such great trouble over it”; the same poem uses it intransitively for “to set out”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense “to set in motion” (early 12th century) is now literary or formal, except in its technical use for driving a machine (1694).^[2][4] The moral sense “to drive, prompt” (1225–1230) is mostly found in the passive, first estre meüz de, then, in modern use, mû par (1289).^[2][4]

Old French also used the verb intransitively for “to set out” and “to stir”, and in feudal law for “to depend on a fief” (1236), the source of mouvance; apart from the feudal term, this use, still alive in the 17th century, has gone, replaced by se mouvoir.^[2][4] The verb is now rare outside the infinitive, the present indicative and the participles.^[9][7]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses it for “to cause harm” and “to set out”.^[4]
• Early 12th century – The Voyage of Saint Brendan uses it for “to set in motion”, and reflexively of a person.^[4]
• 1150 – Wace uses se mouvoir of an object.^[4]
• 1225–1230 – Estre meüz de “to be moved by” appears in Guillaume de Lorris.^[4]
• 1236 – A charter uses it for land that depends on a fief.^[4]
• 1289 – Meüt par is found, the modern construction with par.^[4][2]
• 1495 – The feudal term mouvance is recorded.^[7]
• 1694 – The Académie records it for driving a machine.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To move, set in motion: mouvoir les bras.^[9][10]
2. To drive a machine or mechanism, chiefly in the past participle: une pompe mue par le vent.^[9][3]
3. (figurative) To prompt or drive someone to act: être mû par la jalousie.^[9][3]
4. Se mouvoir: to move, be in motion, move about.^[9][1]

Word family

• mouvance
• mouvement

Related words

• émouvoir
• promouvoir
• mouvant
• mû
• Latin moveō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 163a
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)