publicité

Forms

publicité f (plural publicités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French public + -ité.^[2][3][4][5] The adjective was borrowed from Latin pūblicus in 1311.^[6] Wiktionary instead takes the noun from Medieval Latin pūblicitās, built on the Latin adjective with the suffix -tās.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Académie recorded it in 1694 in the sense “public notoriety”, said in particular of a crime committed in full view of everyone.^[2][6] Rey dates a legal sense, the act of bringing something to the knowledge of the public, to 1689.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the 18th century it meant more generally the quality of what is made public (Batteux, 1746), as in the publicity of court hearings or parliamentary debates;^[2][8][5] the old sense “notoriety” has become archaic or literary.^[7]

The commercial sense, the means used to make a product or a firm known to the public, appears in 1829, with the modern advertising of the press, posters and handbills; in the 19th and early 20th centuries it competed with réclame.^[2][7] From there the word came to name a single advertising message and the medium that carries it, as in publicité lumineuse (1912), and also the department in charge of advertising and the profession itself.^[2][7] The spread of advertising in the 20th century gave the derivative publicitaire (1930) and the familiar clipping pub (about 1965), now very common in France.^[7]

Timeline

• 1689 – First recorded, as a legal term for making something known to the public.^[7]
• 1694 – The Académie records it in the sense “public notoriety”.^[2][6]
• 1746 – Batteux uses it for the quality of what is made public.^[2]
• 1829 – First record of the sense “advertising”.^[2][7]
• 1912 – Publicité lumineuse “illuminated advertising” appears.^[2][7]
• 1930 – The derivative publicitaire is recorded.^[7]
• c. 1965 – The clipping pub appears.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of what is public, not kept secret: la publicité des débats.^[4][5]
2. (law) The act of bringing something to the knowledge of the public, as in publicité foncière.^[4][2]
3. Advertising, publicity: the means used to make a product or a firm known and to make people buy it.^[4][1]
4. An advertisement or commercial: Il a vu une publicité pour ce café.^[1][7]
5. The advertising business, or a firm's advertising department: Elle travaille dans la publicité.^[7]

Word family

• pub
• publicitaire

Related words

• public
• publier
• Latin pūblicus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse