outrageux

Forms

outrageux (feminine outrageuse, masculine plural outrageux, feminine plural outrageuses)^[1] Old French outrajos, outrageus and outrajeus.^[2][3] The spelling outrageux is recorded in 1538, in Robert Estienne's dictionary.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from French outrage + -eux.^[2][1][4] The noun outrage, first found as ultrage about 1100, was itself formed in Old French from outre²,^[5][2] which continues Latin ultrā (“beyond”).^[6] Etymonline instead traces the noun to Vulgar Latin *ultrāticum (“excess”).^[7]

Littré compares Old Occitan oltratgos, Spanish ultrajoso and Italian oltraggioso.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is outrajos in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie (about 1165), said of a person given to excess.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the adjective described above all a person who goes beyond measure; the feminine outrageuse appears in Chrétien de Troyes's Érec et Énide (about 1165–1170).^[2] Applied to things and acts, it meant “insulting, of an outrageous character” by 1220–1225, in Gui de Cambrai's Barlaam et Josaphat (Mais outrageuse volentés, “but an outrageous will”).^[2] The sense “insolent” is dated to about 1315 by the TLFi^[2] and to 1515 by Rey.^[5] Middle French also used it for anything “excessive, immoderate”.^[9]

Classical writers still used it of a tyrant who abuses his power and of an excessive hope;^[3] Furetière's dictionary (1690) separates a satirist, who may mock, from one who is outrageux.^[3] Today it is old-fashioned and literary, and competes with outrageant.^[2] The derived adverb outrageusement (1245) has outlived it in the sense “excessively” (1283).^[5]

Old French outrageus passed into English about 1300 as outrageous, first meaning “excessive, immoderate”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Outrajos is used of a person given to excess in the Roman de Troie.^[2]
• c. 1165–1170 – The feminine outrageuse appears in Chrétien de Troyes.^[2]
• 1220–1225 – First used of an act or thing of an insulting character.^[2]
• 1245 – The adverb outrageusement is recorded.^[5]
• c. 1300 – English borrows the Old French word as outrageous.^[7]
• c. 1315 – Recorded in the sense “insolent”.^[2]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne records the spelling outrageux.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (dated, literary) Of a person: who insults or offends, who commits an outrage.^[2][8]
2. (dated, literary) Of words or acts: outrageous, insulting by nature.^[2][8]
3. (classical) Excessive, immoderate; of a ruler, violent and unjust.^[3]

Word family

• outrageusement

Related words

• outrage
• outrager
• outrageant
• outre²
• outrer
• outrance
• Latin ultrā
• English outrageous

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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf