Etymologically
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ouvrier

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /u.vʁi.je/[1]

Forms

ouvrier m (plural ouvriers, feminine ouvrière)[1] Old French ovrer, overier, ovrier (12th century); ouvrier from the 13th century, after ouvrage and ouvrer.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ovrier, inherited from Latin operārius (“of work; labourer”), from opera (“work, effort”) (see œuvre).[5][2][6][1] The very rare opéraire is a learned doublet.[1]

Cognate with Italian operaio, Old Occitan obrier, Catalan obrer, Spanish obrero and Portuguese obreiro.[7][8] Littré gives Walloon ovrî.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century) has it for an agent, a doer: envers les ovrers de felunie “against the workers of iniquity”, translating adversum operarios iniquitatis.[5][2]

Semantic evolution

By 1155 (Wace) it had its modern sense, a person hiring out his services for a wage to do manual work, and also a person who does a job skilfully.[5][2] Until the 18th century it was more or less a synonym of artisan, sometimes of artiste; with the industrial revolution of the 18th and especially 19th century it came to name the industrial proletariat, as in la classe ouvrière (1808).[2][5] From the 15th century it could imply practical skill without talent, as in en la fin l'on cognoist l'ouvrier.[5][2]

Twentieth-century terms include ouvrier d'État (1903) and ouvrier spécialisé (1931), shortened to O. S. (1950), which misleadingly names an unskilled worker.[2] The adjective is old in jour ouvrier “working day” (early 12th century); ouvrières are worker bees in the Encyclopédie (1751).[5][2] Slang used it for a thief (1836).[2]

Timeline

  • early 12th century – Jurn uvrer “working day”, in the Voyage de saint Brendan.[5]
  • 1st half of the 12th century – Ovrer “doer”, in the Cambridge Psalter.[5]
  • c. 1155 – A wage labourer; a skilled worker, in Wace.[5]
  • 1273 – The form ouvrier, in Adenet.[4]
  • 1751 – Worker bees.[5]
  • 1808 – La classe ouvrière.[5]
  • 1931 – Ouvrier spécialisé.[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A worker, labourer, a manual worker paid a wage: ouvrier agricole, ouvrier d'usine, ouvrier qualifié, skilled worker.[9][1]
  2. (literary) A person who does a work, an artisan: à l'œuvre on connaît l'ouvrier.[4][2]
  3. (feminine) Ouvrière: a worker bee or ant.[5]
  4. (Louisiana) A carpenter.[1]

Adjective

  1. Of workers, working-class: la classe ouvrière, le mouvement ouvrier.[5][1]
  2. Jour ouvrier: a working day.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
  6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert