paresse

Forms

paresse f (plural paresses)^[1] Old French peresce and parece;^[2][3][4] paresse is found from the early 13th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French peresce, inherited from Latin pigritia (“laziness, sluggishness of the stomach”),^[2][5][1] from piger (“reluctant, lazy, sluggish”), a common word with no clear etymology.^[2][3] The suffix ⟨-itia⟩ was replaced by ⟨-icia⟩, and the change of ⟨per-⟩ to ⟨par-⟩ was probably due to the following /r/;^[2][6] the GLLF explains it as a dissimilation of the first /e/.^[7] Littré saw perece as the step between the Latin and the modern form.^[8]

Cognate with Old Occitan pereza, Spanish pereza and Catalan peresa.^[2][6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut (about 1155) has peresce for the settled disposition not to work.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

By extension the word came to mean a lack of energy for a particular task (about 1170), used absolutely or, from 1663, in the construction paresse à with an infinitive.^[2][3] In the classical period it could stand alone where modern French says par paresse.^[3] In Christian use it is one of the seven deadly sins (1656, Pascal).^[3][7]

It was then applied to slowness of mind (1678, La Rochefoucauld) and, in medicine, to the abnormally slow working of an organ (1856, Hugo's paresse musculaire).^[2][3] Of its derivatives, paresseux is recorded before the noun (about 1121, pareçus), and the verb paresser (1175, perecer) is now literary.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1155 – Peresce appears in Wace's Brut.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The form parece is found in the Roman d'Eneas.^[2]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for a lack of energy to do something.^[2]
• Early 13th century – The form paresse appears.^[3][4]
• 1656 – Named as one of the deadly sins.^[3][7]
• 1663 – Molière uses paresse à with an infinitive.^[2]
• 1678 – La Rochefoucauld uses it for slowness of mind.^[2]
• 1856 – Hugo writes paresse musculaire, the medical sense.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Laziness, idleness: a taste for doing nothing and the avoidance of effort.^[9][10]
2. (Christianity) Sloth, one of the seven deadly sins.^[7][3]
3. A lack of energy to do something: la paresse de with an infinitive.^[10][3]
4. Paresse d'esprit: slowness or sluggishness of mind.^[7][2]
5. (medicine) Abnormally slow working of an organ: paresse intestinale.^[10][2]

Word family

• paresser
• paresseux

Related words

• Latin pigritia

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 o p q 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 l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 448a
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)