portier

Forms

portier m (plural portiers, feminine portière)^[1] Old French porter (about 1100), later remade as portier.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French portier, inherited from Late Latin portārius (“doorkeeper”), from Latin porta (“gate, door”).^[3][2][4][5] Rey describes the form ⟨portier⟩ (1119) as a remaking of the older porter, found about 1100 in Rashi's glosses.^[2]

Cognate with Romanian portar, Catalan porter, Spanish portero and Portuguese porteiro; Italian portiere is a borrowing from French.^[2][4] Littré adds Walloon poirti and Occitan portier.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in Philippe de Thaon's Comput (1119), uses it figuratively of January as the doorkeeper of the year; about 1160 the Eneas has it for the person who keeps a door.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word named the keeper of the gate of a castle or a house;^[2] the feminine portière is found about 1200.^[3] Bloch and Wartburg note that the feminine first named the nun who kept a convent's door, and only from the 18th century a woman who kept a house.^[4] In the Church it named the monk who opened the convent door and, in the early Church, the cleric of the first of the four minor orders, whose office had been the keeping of the doors;^[3][2] Richelet records both senses in 1688, and the Académie has frère portier and sœur portière in 1694.^[3][2] A portier de comédie was the man who took the price of the seats at a theatre door.^[2]

In modern French portier has given way to concierge and gardien for the keeper of a private house, and survives mainly in the masculine for the doorman of a hotel or other public building, a 20th-century use.^[2][7] It was also used for a goalkeeper in sport.^[7][8]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The older form porter appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2]
• 1119 – Philippe de Thaon uses portier in his Comput.^[3]
• c. 1160 – The Eneas uses it for the keeper of a door.^[3]
• c. 1200 – The feminine portière appears in the Moralités sur Job.^[3]
• 1688 – Richelet records the minor order of portier and the monk who keeps a convent door.^[3]
• 1694 – The Académie records frère portier and sœur portière.^[3]
• 18th century – Portière is used of a woman who keeps a house.^[4]
• 20th century – Portier is used of the doorman of a public establishment.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) The keeper of the door of a private house, a concierge.^[7][8]
2. A doorman who stands at the entrance of a hotel, a nightclub or another public building.^[7][8][9]
3. In a religious community, the person who keeps the door; in apposition sœur portière.^[7][9]
4. (historical) A cleric who had received the first of the minor orders, the ostiary, abolished in 1972.^[8][7]
5. (sport, dated) A goalkeeper.^[7][8][1]
6. Portier électronique: an entry system at the door of a building, such as a keypad or an intercom.^[7][8]

Related words

• porte
• Latin portārius

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 223a
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)