païen

Forms

païen (feminine païenne, masculine plural païens, feminine plural païennes)^[1] Old French pagien, then paien; the old genitive plural paienor survived in gent paienor “pagan people”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French paien, earlier pagien, inherited from Latin pāgānus (“of the village, rural, civilian, pagan”), from pāgus (“rural district, village”).^{[2][3][5][1][6]} Rey says that the Latin noun first meant a boundary stone driven into the ground, from pangō (“to fix, drive in”), a verb related to Latin pāx; it then named a district marked off by such stones.^[3]

Why “rustic” came to mean “pagan” is debated.^[2][5] The older view, given by Littré, the Grand Robert and the GLLF, is that the old religion held out longer in the countryside than in the towns.^[4][7][8] The TLFi and Rey prefer another: under the Empire the adjective meant “civilian” as opposed to “soldier”, and since the clergy called themselves “soldiers of Christ”, they used the word for those outside that army;^[2][3] Tertullian already writes of “pagan faith”, and a law of Honorius in 409 adopted the term, which displaced gentiles.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg give both explanations.^[5]

Cognate with Italian pagano, Spanish pagano, Portuguese pagão, Catalan pagà, Occitan pagan and Romanian păgân.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 881 in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia, as pagiens, of Maximian “who was king in those days over the pagans”, and li rex pagiens “the pagan king”: an adherent of Greco-Roman polytheism as opposed to a Christian.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) paien is the common word for the Saracens, people not yet evangelized: la paiene gent.^[2][3] By extension it meant “ungodly” as an adjective in the early 13th century, and as a noun in jurer comme un païen “to swear like a trooper”, recorded by the Académie in 1740.^[2][3][8]

In the 17th century it was applied to those inspired by ancient paganism, as a noun in 1671 (Madame de Sévigné) and as an adjective in 1674, when Boileau condemned a Christian author who was idolâtre et payen.^[2][3] Littré records that it was said in the 16th century in two syllables, pa-ien, and in the 17th as pèien.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 881 – Pagiens in the Sequence of Saint Eulalia.^[2]
• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland calls the Saracens la paiene gent.^[2]
• Early 13th century – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it for “ungodly”.^[2]
• c. 1485 – The noun payennerie “paganism” appears.^[2]
• 1671 – Madame de Sévigné uses it of a person with pagan tastes.^[2][3]
• 1674 – Boileau writes idolâtre et payen in the Art poétique.^[2]
• 1740 – The Académie records jurer comme un païen.^[8][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to a polytheistic religion, as opposed to the monotheistic ones: des rites païens.^[9][2]
2. Inspired by the paganism of antiquity, in thought or art.^[9][2]
3. (jocular) Without religious morals, ungodly.^[9]

Noun

1. A pagan, a follower of a polytheistic religion, especially of ancient Greece and Rome.^[9][2]
2. Jurer comme un païen: to swear a great deal.^[3][8]
3. (Acadia) An uneducated person, a hick.^[1]

Word family

• païennerie

Related words

• paganisme
• pays
• paysan
• Latin pāgānus

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 n o p q r 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 h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 466a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert