pourchasser

Forms

pourchasser^[1] Old French porchacier and purchacer.^[2][3] Littré gives Picard pourcacher and Walloon porchessi.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French porchacier, formed from Old French por- + chacier, that is pour- used as an intensive prefix and chasser.^[5][3][2][1] The second part is from Vulgar Latin *captiō, from Latin captō (“to try to catch”).^[6][1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, reflexive, Li reis Marsilie s'en purcacet asez, in the sense “to strive hard”.^[5][4] About 1140 Geoffrey Gaimar uses it transitively for seeking to obtain something.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb meant above all to seek to get or bring about something: Gaimar's purchaça maint esamplaire (about 1140), Wace's gent purchace “raises troops” (about 1155), and in Villehardouin and the Roman de Berte to procure or to plot.^[5][4] The sense “to chase relentlessly”, a person or an animal, appears about 1175 in Chrétien de Troyes according to the GLLF and the Grand Robert, and in a manuscript of Hélinant's Vers de la mort of the 13th century according to the TLFi;^[3][2][5] the figurative use is found about 1240 in Guillaume de Lorris.^[3] The modern word keeps only the idea of hunting down.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – S'en purcacet “strives” in the Chanson de Roland.^[5]
• c. 1140 – Gaimar uses it for seeking to obtain something.^[5]
• c. 1155 – Wace uses it for raising troops.^[5]
• c. 1175 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for pursuing.^[3][2]
• 13th century – The spelling pourchasser is recorded.^[3]
• 13th century – The noun porchacieres, the ancestor of pourchasseur, appears in a translation of William of Tyre.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pursue a person or an animal relentlessly: les chiens pourchassaient un renard.^[8][5]
2. To hound, to pursue with insistence: être pourchassé par ses créanciers.^[8]
3. To seek eagerly, to chase after a thing.^[8][5]

Word family

• pourchasseur

Related words

• chasser
• poursuivre
• Latin captō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 324a
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert