Etymologically
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procès

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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