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printemps

Etymology and origin of the French word printemps

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1200
Ultimate origin
Latin (prīmus,tempus)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pʁɛ̃.tɑ̃/[1]

Forms

printemps m (invariable)[1] Old French prins tans (12th century), printans (about 1200), printens (about 1265, Brunetto Latini); printemps from the late 13th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is the fusion of Old French prins tans, a compound of the old adjective prin (“first”) (see prime) and temps “time, season”.[4][2][5] It may go back to Latin prīmum tempus (“the first season, the good season”), recorded as early as the age of Augustus.[4][5][1] It drove out the older primever, which disappeared in this sense in the 16th century and survives as primevère “primrose”, and Latin vēr (“spring”).[4][1] Spanish and Italian kept the counterpart of that older word, Spanish primavera and Italian primavera.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Printans is found about 1200 in the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne, for the season.[4][2] Brunetto Latini's Trésor already has the proverb that one swallow does not show that printens has come.[7]

Semantic evolution

Eustache Deschamps still wrote ou printemps d'esté, “in the first part of summer”, keeping the sense “first time”.[7] The metaphor “the springtime of life, youth” is in Marot in 1539.[4][2] Boileau in 1666 uses it for the weather and the vegetation of the season.[4][2] In literary language it has meant “a year of a person's age”, after a number (1770, Delille), sometimes ironically (quatre-vingts printemps).[2][4] The astronomical spring, from the equinox to the solstice, is in Laplace (1796).[3] It later took the figurative sense of a period of hope for freedom and progress.[2] Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps is the French form of the old proverb.[8]

Timeline

  • 12th century – Prins tans.[2]
  • c. 1200 – Printans in the Naissance du Chevalier au Cygne.[4]
  • Late 13th century – The spelling printemps.[3]
  • 16th century – Primever “spring” disappears.[4]
  • 1539 – “Youth”, in Marot.[4]
  • 1666 – The weather of the season, in Boileau.[4]
  • 1770 – “A year of age”, in Delille.[4]
  • 1796 – The astronomical spring, in Laplace.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Spring, the first of the four seasons, from 21 March to 21 June in the northern hemisphere: équinoxe de printemps.[8][9]
  2. The weather and vegetation of that season.[8][4]
  3. (literary) A year of a person's age, especially a young one: quatre-vingts printemps, said ironically.[2][7]
  4. (literary) The springtime of life, youth.[7][2]
  5. (figurative) A period of hopes of freedom and progress.[2]

Word family

  • printanier

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Printemps.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/printemps. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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