neveu

Forms

neveu m (plural neveux, feminine nièce)^[1] Old French subject case niés, object case nevuld, nevold, nevod, plural nevolz.^[2][3] The spelling neveu is found about 1175 in Chrétien de Troyes, and for both cases about 1207 in Villehardouin.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French nevuld, the Old French object case, inherited from Latin nepōs (“grandson, descendant”), from the accusative nepōtem; the subject case niés continued the Latin nominative.^[2][3][5][6] In Late Latin the word took the sense “son of one's brother or sister”.^[2][7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *nepōts, from Proto-Indo-European *népōts.^[1] It is an Indo-European term for indirect kinship, also found in Old English nefa and Old High German nevo.^[3] English nephew was borrowed from Old French.^[3]

Cognate with Italian nipote and Old Occitan nebot;^[7][2] Spanish says sobrino, from Latin sobrīnus (“first cousin”).^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), niés and nevuld mean “son of one's brother or sister”: Vint i ses niés, ot vestue sa broine “his nephew came there, wearing his mail coat”.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old and Middle French kept the Latin sense “grandson” beside “nephew” (about 1165); it still appears in a legal text in the 16th century and died out in the 17th.^[2][3][7] The plural neveux (nepveux about 1500) was used for “descendants”, a calque of the poetic Latin plural nepotes; since the 17th century this use is only poetic or literary.^[2][3]

The phrase neveu à la mode de Bretagne “son of a first cousin” is recorded in 1690.^[2][3] The familiar un peu, mon neveu !, an emphatic “yes”, comes from a comic scene in Désaugiers and Nombret Saint-Laurent's play Les Couturières (1823).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Niés and nevuld appear in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][3]
• c. 1165 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for “grandson”.^[2][3]
• c. 1175 – The spelling neveu appears in Chrétien de Troyes.^[4]
• c. 1500 – Commynes uses nepveux for “descendants”.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Furetière records neveu à la mode de Bretagne.^[2][3]
• 1823 – Un peu, mon neveu ! in the play Les Couturières.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nephew: the son of one's brother or sister, or of one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law.^[8][4]
2. Neveu à la mode de Bretagne: the son of a first cousin.^[8][5]
3. (archaic) A grandson; in the plural, (literary) descendants, posterity.^[2][8][5]
4. (familiar) Un peu, mon neveu !: an emphatic yes.^[8][4][3]

Word family

• petit-neveu
• arrière-neveu

Related words

• nièce
• népotisme
• Latin nepōs
• English nephew

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 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 l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 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 c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 94b
7. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert