Etymologically
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pensée

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pɑ̃.se/[1]

Forms

pensée f (plural pensées)[1] Old French pansée, pensée; it replaced the older pense (feminine) and pens (masculine).[2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine past participle of penser, used as a noun.[2][4][5][6] “Penser” continues Latin pēnsō (“to weigh; to judge”), a frequentative of pendō (“to weigh”), which must have taken the sense “to think” in late Latin; its /n/ shows a form kept by the written language, the popular development being peser.[6] The flower is the same word, the pansy being the emblem of remembrance.[4][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Chrétien de Troyes' Cligès (1176) pansée is what one thinks; the Châtelain de Coucy (about 1200) has Tant est mes cuers plus près et ma pensée of a lover's devotion.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French it meant a wise reflection (bone pansée, end of the 12th century), meditation (1216), love (about 1200), the mind as the seat of thought (about 1200), a way of thinking (about 1215) and an idea that comes to mind (about 1220); estre en pensée meant to be worried (13th century).[2] The intellect itself, the faculty of thinking, is recorded by Monet in 1636, and Descartes made la pensée the principle of the mind as opposed to matter.[2][4] A short, deep reflection in literary form is a pensée from Pascal's Pensées (1669).[2]

The flower pensée is found in Jean Lemaire de Belges (1512); the Petit Robert dates it to 1460.[4][7][5] Couleur de pensée, a purple, is recorded in 1634.[8]

Timeline

  • 1176 – Pansée, Chrétien de Troyes.[2]
  • c. 1200 – Amorous attachment, the Châtelain de Coucy.[2]
  • c. 1220 – An idea, Anseïs de Carthage.[2]
  • 1512 – The flower, Jean Lemaire de Belges.[4]
  • 1587 – Arrière-pensée (once; again in 1798).[6]
  • 1634 – Couleur de pensée.[8]
  • 1636 – The faculty of thinking, Monet.[2]
  • 1669 – Pascal's Pensées.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. thought, the faculty of thinking; the mind: la pensée humaine, dans ma pensée.[9][5]
  2. A thought, an idea: une pensée me vint, lire dans les pensées.[1][5]
  3. The thinking, ideas of a person or a school: la pensée de Descartes, école de pensée.[1][9]
  4. A maxim, a brief reflection: les Pensées de Pascal.[2]
  5. A pansy, a garden plant of the violet family.[5][9]

Word family

  • arrière-pensée
  • libre-pensée

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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)