obstination

Forms

obstination f (plural obstinations)^[1] Tobler–Lommatzsch lists the Old French form ostinacïon.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin obstinātiō (“constancy, perseverance, firmness”), borrowed at the end of the 12th century.^[3][4][5] The Latin noun was formed on the supine of obstinō (“to persist in”),^[3][6][5] a verb made of ob (“before”) and a stem with a nasal infix related to stō (“to stand”).^[4] Picoche places it in the family of ester¹, beside destiner and obstiner.^[7]

Littré compares Old Occitan obstinatio and Spanish obstinación.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found at the end of the 12th century in the French Sermons of Saint Bernard, of people whose hardness and great obstinacy made the speaker give up talking to them: par la grant duresce et la grant obstination des homes.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word meant constancy or firmness, a quality, but in French obstination has from the start named a stubborn attachment to an opinion or a decision, and it is mostly pejorative.^[3][4] The Dictionary of Middle French shows it from about 1330 for persisting in an opinion or an error, in Guillaume de Digulleville.^[2] In the plural it named obstinate acts: in 1476 Jean de Troyes wrote of a ruler losing time, men and land through his folles obstinations.^[8]

Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611 glossed it both as wilfulness and stubbornness and as constancy and perseverance in an opinion.^[9] The Académie française defined it in 1694 by opiniastreté, with the phrase obstination dans le mal.^[10] Its relatives came later: obstiné about 1180, obstinément in 1355 and the verb obstiner in 1531.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – First recorded in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[3][5]
• c. 1330 – Guillaume de Digulleville uses it of persisting in an error.^[2]
• 1476 – Jean de Troyes uses the plural obstinations.^[8]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it as wilfulness and stubbornness.^[9]
• 1694 – The first edition of the Académie dictionary includes it.^[10][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Obstinacy, stubbornness: the behaviour of a person who will not give up an idea or an aim: Elle a défendu son projet avec obstination.^[11][12][1]
2. An obstinate act.^[1][8]

Related words

• obstiner
• obstiné
• obstinément
• entêtement
• Latin obstinātiō

Usage notes

Littré notes that in the 16th and 17th centuries the word was pronounced ostination, and that this was still the popular pronunciation in his day.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
8. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
10. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
11. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)