plaider

Forms

plaider^[1] Old French plaidier and plaidoier.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman pleder, pleider and pleter.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French plaider, from Old French plait (“assembly, lawsuit”) (modern plaid) with the verb ending -er.^[5][3][6][7] The noun is from Latin placitum (“what pleases, what is agreed”), the neuter past participle of placeō (“to please”), which in Merovingian and Carolingian Latin came to mean an assembly where justice was done, then a lawsuit.^[6][3] Medieval Latin had a verb placitare "to hold a plea, appear in court, plead a cause",^[5][3] from which Littré derives the French verb;^[2] Etymonline gives the same source for the English word plead, which came through Anglo-Norman.^[8]

Littré compares Walloon plaitî, Old Occitan plaidejar, Catalan pledejar and Italian piatire.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) it means “to hold one's court, sit in judgment”, and its past participle already refers to arguing a case before the court.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

While the old plaid died out with the institutions it named, the verb settled in legal and everyday use.^[3] The sense “to bring a lawsuit” (1174–1176) has aged, and the transitive use began about 1240 with “to argue (a case) in court”.^[5][3] From about 1590 (Montaigne) it meant more generally “to speak in favour of, defend”, used transitively from 1690; hence plaider le faux pour savoir le vrai (1789).^[5][3] With a thing as its subject it means “to testify in favour of” from 1734.^[5][3]

The derivative plaideur (about 1210) first seems to have meant the advocate, then a person always at law, a stock figure of 17th-century satire such as Racine's Les Plaideurs.^[3] The English verb plead is recorded from the mid-13th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses it for holding court and for pleading.^[5][3]
• 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it for “to bring a lawsuit”.^[5]
• c. 1210 – The derivative plaideur appears.^[3]
• c. 1240 – First transitive use, “to argue (a case)”.^[5][3]
• 1254 – Rutebeuf uses it for “to summon to court”.^[5]
• c. 1250 – The English verb pleden is recorded.^[8]
• c. 1590 – Montaigne uses it for “to speak in favour of”.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the general transitive sense “to defend”.^[5]
• 1734 – Marivaux uses it with a thing as subject.^[5]
• 1789 – Plaider le faux pour savoir le vrai is recorded.^[5][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To go to law, to contest something in court.^[10][5]
2. (intransitive) To argue a cause before the judges, of an advocate.^[10][11]
3. Plaider pour, en faveur de: to speak in defence of someone or something.^[10]
4. (transitive) To plead a case or argue a point in court: plaider une cause, plaider coupable.^[2][11]

Word family

• plaideur

Related words

• plaid
• plaidoyer
• plaire
• Latin placitum
• English plead

Usage notes

Littré notes that it is conjugated with the auxiliary avoir.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse