poésie

Forms

poésie f (plural poésies)^[1] Middle French poesie, also spelled poësie.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin poēsis (“poetry, a poetic work”), borrowed about 1370,^[2][3] itself from Ancient Greek ποίησις (poíēsis, “creation, making, composing of poems”), a noun of the same Greek verb “to make” that gave poème.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead traces the Middle French word to Late Latin poēsia, a later form of the Latin word,^[1] and Etymonline to Vulgar Latin *poesia, the source of Italian poesia and Portuguese poesia.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean Le Fèvre's Leesce (about 1370) has Leurs fables et leurs poësies “their fables and their poems”, in the sense “piece of verse”.^[2][3] The Grand Robert and the GLLF date the sense “art of literary fiction and verse” to about 1350.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

Soon after the sense “piece of verse” the word took the general sense “art of making verse” (Oresme, 1372–74), and then a poet's, school's or country's own way of practising that art (Marot, 1532).^[2][3] Poésie en prose is found from 1666, and qualified uses name a kind of poetry: haute poésie (1787) and poésie pure, first used by Baudelaire in 1857 of Edgar Poe.^[3][2]

By metonymy it came to mean poetic inspiration or feeling: in a literary work from the early 16th century, in any work of art before 1699 (Racine: Tous les arts sont poésies), and since the Romantics in a person, thing or situation that stirs poetic emotion (Chateaubriand, 1803).^[2][3] It also named a writer's creative power (Académie, 1694) and Mme de Staël (1810) used it for anyone's capacity to feel poetic emotion.^[3][2]

The English word poesy (late 14th century) came from Old French poesie.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1370 – Jean Le Fèvre uses poësies for pieces of verse.^[2][3]
• 1372–74 – Oresme uses it for the art of making verse.^[2]
• 1532 – Marot writes of françoyse poesie, a nation's way of writing verse.^[2]
• 1666 – Furetière writes of a novel as une poésie en prose.^[2][3]
• 1694 – The Académie records the sense “a writer's creative power”.^[2]
• before 1699 – Racine extends it to every art.^[2]
• 1787 – Marmontel uses haute poésie.^[2]
• 1803 – Chateaubriand writes of la poésie de la nature.^[2]
• 1857 – Baudelaire uses poésie pure.^[2][3]
• 1926 – Antipoésie appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. poetry: the art of language that expresses or suggests through rythme (above all verse), harmony and image.^[7][1]
2. A kind of poetry: poésie lyrique, poésie épique.^[7][8]
3. A poème, a short piece of verse: réciter une poésie.^[2]
4. (figurative) The poetic quality of a thing, a place or a situation, what stirs poetic emotion: la poésie d'un paysage d'hiver.^[2][8][1]

Related words

• poème
• poète
• poétique
• Latin poēsis
• English poesy

Usage notes

Littré gives three syllables, po-é-zie, and notes that in ordinary speech the word was said in two, poé-zie.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette