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passivité

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Etymology and origin of the French word passivité

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1697 as passiveté, Madame de Maintenon and Bossuet More words from the 17th century
Ultimate origin
Latin passīvus

Forms

passivité f (plural passivités)[1] Earlier passiveté (1697).[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French passif + -ité, first as passiveté (1697), reshaped by 1760.[2][3][4] The adjective was borrowed about 1220 from Latin passīvus (“capable of suffering”).[4] Latin had passīvitās as a grammatical term from the 1st century, but the DHLF holds that the French word was not modelled on it.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1697 as passiveté, in a letter of Madame de Maintenon (16 March), for the quality of being passif, and in the same year in Bossuet's work on states of prayer, for the soul's passive state in mystical contemplation.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It was born in the religious controversies of the late 17th century, for the state of a soul that stays passive to yield wholly to God's action, a notion linked with quiétisme.[3][6] The general sense, the passive state or character of a person, was there from the first records, and the spelling passivité is found in Charles Bonnet in 1760.[3][2] Chemistry took it up in 1869 for the resistance of some metals to corrosion.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1697 – Passiveté in Madame de Maintenon and Bossuet.[2]
  • 1760 – Bonnet writes passivité.[2][4]
  • 1869 – Wurtz uses it in chemistry.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. passivity: the state or attitude of someone who undergoes events without reacting; inertie, apathie.[6][7][8]
  2. (religion) The state of the soul that stays passive to submit wholly to God's action.[6][5]
  3. (chemistry) The property some metals acquire of resisting corrosion or oxidation.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Passivité.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/passivit%C3%A9. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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