populaire

Forms

populaire (plural populaires)^[1] Old French populeir (about 1200); the spelling populaire is found from about 1330.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman populer, popullaire.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin populāris (“of the people, liked by the people”), first as Old French populeir.^[2][3][5][6] The Latin adjective is derived from populus (“people”), the source of peuple.^[3][7] In Classical Latin the plural of the adjective named the members of the popular party, in Christian Latin the laity as opposed to the clergy, and in Medieval Latin the common people.^[2][3]

Cognate with Italian popolare and Occitan popular.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Around 1200 populeir in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory meant “of the people, made up of common people”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From about 1330 it also qualified what is current among the people, and it followed the senses of peuple as the social layers and classes it opposed changed, taking on political overtones in the 19th century.^[2][3] The 16th century added a favourable sense, “simple, natural, unpretentious” (Ronsard, 1556), and an unfavourable one, “ill-mannered, vulgar” (Montaigne, 1580).^[2][3] Montaigne also used estat populaire (1588) for a government in which the people hold power, the start of the word's political career, down to Front populaire.^[2][3][8]

The sense “liked by the people” goes back to Amyot (1559),^[2][3] but Rey says it spread at the end of the 18th century under the influence of English popular, citing a letter of 1780 by Mme de Boufflers;^[3] Bloch and Wartburg date this sense to 1780 and call it a borrowing from English.^[5] As a noun, les populaires “the common people” is recorded in the 14th century;^[2][3] le populaire “the populace” survives with an ironic or pejorative tone.^[2][3] In the 20th century culture and theatre called populaire took on institutional value, as in the Théâtre national populaire.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Populeir “of the people” in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory.^[2]
• c. 1330 – Populaire “current among the people” in Girart de Roussillon.^[2][7]
• 1338 – The plural noun les populaires “the common people”.^[2]
• 1556 – Ronsard uses it for “simple, unpretentious”.^[2]
• 1559 – Amyot uses it for “liked by the people”.^[2][8]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for “vulgar, ill-mannered”.^[2]
• 1588 – Montaigne's estat populaire, a government by the people.^[2]
• 1780 – The sense “liked by the people” spreads, under English influence.^[3][5]
• 1912 – Les populaires, the cheapest seats in a theatre or stadium.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the people, coming from the people: la volonté populaire, Front populaire.^[8][2]
2. Characteristic of or current among the people: popular beliefs and traditions.^[8][2]
3. (linguistics) Used by ordinary people rather than educated speakers, colloquial; also, of a form, inherited rather than learned: étymologie populaire “folk etymology”.^[8][1]
4. Made for or recruited from the working class: quartier populaire, soupe populaire.^[8][1]
5. Liked by most people, popular.^[8][1]

Noun

1. (dated) Le populaire: the populace, the common people.^[8][1]

Word family

• impopulaire
• populairement
• popularité
• populariser
• populo
• impopularité

Related words

• peuple
• vulgaire
• Latin populāris

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 l m n o 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 177b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert