Etymologically
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obscur

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Pronunciation

Forms

obscur (feminine obscure, masculine plural obscurs, feminine plural obscures)[1] Old French oscur (late 11th century), obscur from the 12th century;[2][3][4] oscur remained the usual form until the 16th century and is still found in Ronsard.[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman also had escur and ouscur.[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin obscūrus (“dark, gloomy; hard to understand; unknown; hidden, secret”).[6][2][3][7] It was first written oscur, with the Latin ⟨b⟩ restored in the 12th century;[2][8] Wiktionary instead treats the word as inherited through Old French, the ⟨b⟩ coming from a learned relatinisation in Middle French.[1] In the 16th century it was still pronounced ⟨oscur⟩, according to Théodore de Bèze.[9]

The Latin word has no clear analysis;[2] Rey reports a proposal that it contains an element *-scūrus related to words for shade and cover, such as Old Norse skuggi (“shadow”), Old High German scuwo (“shadow”) and, through Norse, English sky.[2] Littré connected the same conjectured element with Latin scūtum (“shield”), so that the word would mean “covering all round”.[9] Its semantic opposite in Latin was clārus, the source of clair.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found at the end of the 11th century in the Chanson de Guillaume, spelled oscur, meaning “without light, dark”.[4][2] The TLFi's first record of this sense is in the Roman d'Eneas (about 1160).[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the adjective was already used as a noun, l'oscur, for darkness (1160–1174, Wace), and of a dark colour (about 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure); in the colour sense it lost ground to sombre and foncé after the 17th century.[6][2] As a painters' term l'obscur is the dark part of a picture (1690, Furetière), as in clair-obscur.[6][2]

The figurative sense “hard to understand” is as old as the physical one (1160–1174, Wace).[6][2] In the 16th and 17th centuries the word came to mean “unknown, without renown” (1559, Amyot) and “of humble birth” (1611, Cotgrave), and the Port-Royal Logique (1662) used it actively of a person who understands poorly, a sense now lost.[6][2] Salles obscures for cinemas dates from 1917.[4][2]

Timeline

  • Late 11th century – Oscur in the Chanson de Guillaume.[4]
  • 1160–1174 – Wace uses it of something hard to understand, and as a noun for darkness.[6]
  • c. 1165 – Of a dark colour, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[6]
  • 1213 – The adverb obscurément.[3]
  • 1559 – Amyot uses it for “unknown, without renown”.[6]
  • 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense “of humble birth”.[6]
  • 1690 – Furetière records l'obscur as a painting term.[6]
  • 1917 – Salle obscure.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. dark, without light or poorly lit: un couloir obscur, les salles obscures, cinemas.[10][6]
  2. Dark in colour, dim.[10][4]
  3. Hard to understand, obscure: un texte obscur.[10][1]
  4. Vague, not clearly felt or known: un obscur pressentiment.[4][6]
  5. Unknown, without fame; humble: un obscur fonctionnaire.[10][4]

Noun

  1. L'obscur: darkness; the dark parts of a picture.[6][10]

Word family

  • obscurcir
  • obscurément
  • obscurité
  • obscurcissement
  • obscurantisme
  • clair-obscur

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 281a
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert