procès

Forms

procès m (invariable)^[1] Old French proçais, prociès and prochès.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin processus, the legal term for a proceeding before a court (13th century), from Latin prōcessus (“a going forward, progress”), the action noun of prōcēdō (“to go forward”).^[3][4][5][6] The older sense “development” came from the Classical Latin word.^[3] It is a doublet of processus.^[1] As a legal term it is also found in Old Gascon from 1270 or 1278.^[3][4]

Cognate with Old Occitan proces, Spanish proceso and Italian processo.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1174 in Étienne de Fougères, for a legal title or contract.^[7][4] The TLFi's first record is in 1250, meaning “development, course”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The early legal senses, a title, a written record, a document, faded as the stress moved from the written act to the procedure, and in 1324 the word took its modern sense of a case brought before a court.^[4][3][5] Phrases followed: être en procès (1341), faire le procès à quelqu'un (1639, Rotrou)^[3][4] and sans autre forme de procès (1609), which began as a legal phrase.^[3][4] Used figuratively, faire le procès à quelqu'un came to mean attacking someone's conduct.^[3]

The sense “development, course” survived in learned use,^[3][5] and in anatomy it names an outgrowth, as in procès ciliaires (1665).^[3] Linguists adopted it in the 20th century for what the verb expresses (1927 or 1933).^[8][7]

Timeline

• c. 1174 – Étienne de Fougères uses it for a legal title.^[7]
• 1250 – In the sense “development, course”.^[3]
• 1324 – A case brought before a court.^[3][5]
• 1341 – Être en procès.^[4]
• 1367 – The compound procès-verbal.^[5]
• 1575 – Ambroise Paré uses it in anatomy.^[3]
• 1609 – Sans autre forme de procès.^[3]
• 1639 – Faire le procès à quelqu'un in Rotrou.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lawsuit, a dispute brought before a court: intenter un procès, gagner son procès.^[8][1]
2. A trial: un procès criminel.^[8][1]
3. Faire le procès de: to put on trial, (figurative) to criticize severely.^[8][4]
4. Sans autre forme de procès: without further ado.^[8][1]
5. (anatomy) A projecting part, process: procès ciliaires.^[8][3]
6. (linguistics) The action or state that a verb expresses.^[8][7]
7. (dated or technical) Development, course.^[8][3]

Word family

• processif
• procès-verbal

Related words

• processus
• procéder

Usage notes

Procès d'intention is the charge of holding bad intentions without evidence of them.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e 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, 411a
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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