plaindre
Pronunciation
- IPA: /plɛ̃dʁ/[1]
Forms
plaindre[1] Old French plaindre, pleindre.[1][2]
Etymology
It is inherited from Old French plaindre, inherited from Latin plangō (“to strike; to beat one's breast in grief; to lament”).[3][4][5][6][7] The Latin verb first meant “to strike”, then “to beat one's breast or thighs in mourning”; in Imperial Latin it was used for “to lament, pity, weep”, the meaning the Romance languages kept.[4] Rey sees an expressive formation, like clangō (“to resound”), on an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂k- also seen in Ancient Greek πλήσσω (plḗssō, “to strike”) and in Old Church Slavonic плачѫ сѧ (plačǫ sę, “I lament”).[4][1] Littré relates it to plāga (“blow, wound”), the source of plaie.[2][8]
Cognate with Romanian plânge, Italian piangere, Old Occitan planher and Catalan planyer.[9][8][2]
Earliest recorded meaning
The Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) uses it for mourning someone's death: Plainums ansemble le doel de nostre ami “let us lament together the loss of our friend”.[3][2]
Semantic evolution
The first uses are all about mourning, “to bewail someone's death” (about 1050, 1080), and the reflexive se plaindre (about 1100) first meant “to show one's grief by tears and laments”.[3][4] Weakened, se plaindre came to mean “to express one's dissatisfaction”, with a complement from about 1180, and in law “to lodge a complaint” (1243); it replaced an old intransitive plaindre, used from the 12th to the 17th century.[4][3] The transitive verb moved from mourning to compassion, “to pity”, with être à plaindre (Pascal, 1656–57) and n'être pas à plaindre (Furetière, 1690).[3][10]
From the second half of the 13th century plaindre also meant “to give grudgingly”, a sense that survives in ne pas plaindre sa peine “to spare no effort” (1452).[3][5]
Timeline
- c. 1050 – “To lament someone's death”, Vie de saint Alexis.[3]
- c. 1100 – Reflexive se plaindre, Chanson de Roland.[3]
- c. 1225 – The legal term plaignant.[5]
- 1243 – “To lodge a complaint”.[3]
- Second half of the 13th century – “To give grudgingly”, Adam de la Halle.[3]
- 1452 – Ne pas plaindre sa peine, Arnoul Gréban.[3]
- 1552 – Of things, to make plaintive sounds, Ronsard.[3]
- 1656–57 – Être à plaindre, Pascal.[3]
Meanings
Verb
- To pity, feel sorry for: je le plains, être à plaindre, to deserve pity.[8][1]
- Ne pas plaindre (something): not to begrudge or spare it: ne pas plaindre sa peine.[3][10]
- Se plaindre: to complain, express discontent: se plaindre de quelqu'un, se plaindre que; to lodge a complaint.[8][1]
- Se plaindre: to moan, lament, express pain.[3][8]
Word family
- plainte
- plaignant
- plaintif
Related words
- complainte
- plaie
- Latin plangō
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 15b
- ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
- ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse