nièce

Forms

nièce f (plural nièces, masculine neveu)^[1] Old French niece, Middle French niepce.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French niece, inherited from Late Latin neptia, a late form found in glosses and inscriptions,^[3][4][5][6] from Latin neptis (“granddaughter”), which in late antiquity also meant “niece”, the feminine of nepōs (“grandson, nephew”).^[3][4][7] The TLFi and Rey explain the diphthong /ie/ from short /e/ by its position before a group of consonants, with palatalization of /tty/: the Latin form became /neptsja/ and then /nettsja/ before giving the Old French word.^[3][4] Bloch and Wartburg instead put the ⟨iè⟩ down to the influence of nies, an old form of neveu.^[5]

Old Occitan had nepsa and nessa from the same form.^[3][5] Another late Latin form, Late Latin nepta, gave Catalan neta, Portuguese neta, Spanish nieta (“granddaughter”) and Old Occitan neta “niece”, while Italian nipote serves for both sexes.^[3][5] Walloon and Lorraine dialects have a type neveuse, formed on the word for nephew.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Wace's Roman de Brut (1155), meaning the daughter of one's brother or sister.^[3][4][7]

Semantic evolution

Its other old sense, “granddaughter”, appears in Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–1174) and lingered in dictionaries until the late 17th century;^[3][4] Bloch and Wartburg found it surviving only in a dialect form of the Alpes-Maritimes.^[5] The senses follow those of neveu, and the word came to cover the daughter of a brother-in-law or sister-in-law too.^[4][3]

The phrase nièce à la mode de Bretagne is recorded by the Académie in 1694 for the daughter of a first cousin.^[3][7][4] The compounds petite-nièce (1598) and arrière-petite-nièce (1866) followed.^[4] In African French the word also covers the daughters of first cousins of the same generation.^[4]

Timeline

• 1155 – Wace's Roman de Brut uses it for a brother's or sister's daughter.^[3][4]
• 1160–1174 – Wace's Roman de Rou uses it for a granddaughter.^[3][4]
• 1598 – Petite-nièce is first recorded.^[4]
• 1671 – Pomey's dictionary is the last to give the sense “granddaughter”.^[3]
• 1694 – The Académie records nièce à la mode de Bretagne.^[3][7]
• 1866 – Arrière-petite-nièce is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A niece, the daughter of one's brother or sister, and by extension of one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law.^[8][9][3]
2. Nièce à la mode de Bretagne: the daughter of one's first cousin¹.^[7][2]

Word family

• petite-nièce
• arrière-petite-nièce

Related words

• neveu
• népotisme
• Latin neptis

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 96b
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)