oligarque

Forms

oligarque m (plural oligarques)^[1] Middle French olygarche (about 1562), oligarque (1568); olygarque again in Bonald (1800).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs, “oligarch”), formed from ὀλίγος (olígos, “few”) and ἄρχω (árkhō, “to command, rule”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary has it come through Late Latin oligarcha, the Latin form of the Greek word.^[1] It is the agent noun beside oligarchie, which is older in French.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1562 François Bonivard, in a treatise on nobility and on the monarchic, aristocratic and democratic estates, writes olygarche for a member of a government by the few.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its Greek sense, a member of an oligarchy.^[2][3] Littré also gives “supporter of oligarchic government”, a sense the GLLF dates to Boiste's dictionary of 1823 and marks as dated.^[7][6]

By extension it came to mean a member of a class or group that dominates some sector of a country's activity (Louis Blanc wrote in 1845 of oligarques industriels, industrial oligarchs) and, in Balzac (1834), a person of undisputed authority in a field.^[2][5][6] Le Robert records a special use for the few people who seized economic power in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1562 – Bonivard writes olygarche.^[2][4]
• 1568 – Oligarque appears in Louis Le Roy's translation of Aristotle.^[2][3]
• 1800 – Bonald uses olygarque.^[2][5]
• 1823 – Boiste records the word, also for a supporter of oligarchy.^[6][4]
• 1834 – Balzac calls a great artist un oligarque, a person of undisputed authority.^[2]
• 1845 – Louis Blanc writes of industrial oligarchs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A member of an oligarchy, one of the few who hold power in a state.^[3][9][2]
2. A powerful member of a group that dominates a sector of a country's economy or society; especially one of the tycoons who took control of the economy of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s.^[2][8]
3. (literary) A person of undisputed authority in some field.^[2][6]
4. (dated) A supporter of oligarchy.^[6][7]

Related words

• oligarchie
• oligarchique
• monarque
• Ancient Greek ὀλιγάρχης (oligárkhēs)

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 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)