Etymologically
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pire

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Pronunciation

Forms

pire (plural pires)[1] Old French nominative pire, oblique peior, pejur, pieur; the oblique form died out in the 15th century, and, unusually, the nominative survived.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pire, inherited from Latin peior (“worse”), the comparative of malus (“bad”).[2][5][3][6][1][7] “Pire” continues the Latin nominative “pejor”, stressed on the first syllable; the accusative “pejōrem” gave “peior”, “pieur”.[4][2] Rey reports a proposed base “*ped-yos-” “falling”, with Sanskrit पद्यते (pádyate, “he falls”), Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *ped-yōs (“downward”).[5][1] The neuter peius gave pis.[3][8]

Cognate with Italian peggiore, Spanish peor and Portuguese pior.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon (1119) uses it as the superlative of mauvais: la pire rüelete “the worst little street”; the Chanson de Roland has des mielz et des pejurs “of the best and the worst”.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As a comparative, “worse”, it is found in Wace (1155), and as a noun, le pire, “the worst”, about 1165.[2][5] From these come pour le meilleur et pour le pire and la politique du pire.[5] The rivalry between pire and pis survives in adverbial uses of pire that purists criticise: faire pire (1643), rien de pire (1679), c'est pire (1788).[5] In Canadian French pire can mean simply “bad”: c'est pas pire “not bad”.[5][9] The verb empirer is a 13th-century remaking, after pire, of Old French empeirier.[5][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Pejurs, Chanson de Roland.[4]
  • 1119 – Superlative la pire, Philippe de Thaon.[2]
  • 1155 – Comparative “worse”, Wace.[2]
  • c. 1165 – The noun le pire.[2]
  • 15th century – The form pieur disappears.[2]
  • 1643 – Faire pire.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. worse: le remède est pire que le mal, de pire en pire.[9][1]
  2. Le pire, la pire: the worst: le pire ennemi, de la pire espèce.[1][10]
  3. (Canada, familiar) Pas pire: not bad.[5][1]

Noun

  1. Le pire: the worst: s'attendre au pire, au pire, at worst, pour le meilleur et pour le pire.[10][5]

Word family

  • empirer

Usage notes

Pire is the comparative of the adjective mauvais and may replace plus mauvais, pis is the comparative of the adverb mal.[10][9] Il n'est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre is a common proverb.[9][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  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 d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 153b
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c d 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)