prône

Forms

prône m (plural prônes)^[1] Old French prodne (late 11th century), prone, prosne and the Picard prorne.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French prosne (“homily”), inherited from Old French prodne (“grating”), inherited from Vulgar Latin *protinum,^[1][2][3] a dissimilated form of Late Latin protirum,^[2][3] a singular remade from the neuter plural prothyra (“space in front of the door, vestibule”) used by Vitruvius of Greek houses.^[2][3][5] A 9th-century gloss also has the dissimilated form protulum.^[2] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek πρόθυρα (próthura), the plural of πρόθυρον (próthuron, “passage from the front door to the inner door, porch”),^[2][6] formed from πρό (pró, “before”) and θύρα (thúra, “door”).^[3][6]

The /t/ became /d/ and, in contact with /n/, a voiced fricative, which became /z/: hence the ⟨s⟩ of the Middle French form.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg reject a link with Old French esparron (“heavy beam”) from Frankish, since its ⟨s⟩ was pronounced, as the Picard form prorne shows.^[4] Littré derived it from Latin praecōnium (“proclamation”), an explanation the later dictionaries do not follow.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A late 11th-century gloss of Rashi has prodne for a lattice or grating, though the reading is uncertain;^[2] Chrétien de Troyes (1176–1181) uses prones for the grating between the choir and the nave, in front of which a madman would be tied up for exorcism.^[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

The priest stood in front of this grating to preach, and by the early 13th century Jean Bodel speaks of a priest coming to preach a son proisne.^[2][3] By metonymy the word passed to the homily itself at the Sunday parish mass, recorded in 1420.^[2][3][8] About 1190 faire le prorne meant “to brag, play the braggart”, a phrase lost in modern French.^[2][3]

Être recommandé au prône was used ironically in 1675 for being censured as one deserves.^[2][3] The word was also used for idle talk (1640) and for tedious, ill-timed remonstrances (1675, Madame de Sévigné).^[2][3] Only the religious sense has stayed in use,^[3] while the old sense “grating” lives on in dialects, as in Yonne proune “lattice gate”.^[4] The derived verb prôner (late 16th century) moved away from it to mean “to praise, advocate”.^[3][4]

Timeline

• Late 1000s – Prodne “grating” appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses prones for the grating between choir and nave.^[2][3]
• c. 1190 – Jean Bodel has faire le prorne “to brag”.^[2][3]
• Early 1200s – The priest preaches in front of the grating.^[2][3]
• 1420 – First record of the sense “homily of the parish mass”.^[2][3][8]
• 1640 – Used for idle talk.^[2][3]
• 1675 – Être recommandé au prône “to be censured”, and Madame de Sévigné's sense “tiresome remonstrances”.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Furetière records the modern sense of the word.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (religion) The homily or sermon, with notices to the faithful, that a priest gives at the Sunday parish mass: Le curé a parlé de la fête au prône.^[2][9][1]
2. (familiar) A long, tedious moralizing speech.^[9]
3. (historical) In medieval churches, the grating separating the choir from the nave.^[2][6]

Word family

• prôner
• prôneur

Related words

• Latin prothyra

Usage notes

Recommander quelqu'un au prône meant to commend someone to the prayers of the faithful at the homily and, figuratively, to complain of them to their superiors.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 t u v w x 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 p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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, 478a
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert