qualité

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ka.li.te/^[1]

Forms

qualité f (plural qualités)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin quālitās (“nature, character of a thing”), a word coined by Cicero from quālis (“of what kind”) to render the philosophers' Ancient Greek ποιότης (poiótēs), from ποῖος (poîos, “of what kind”).^[2][3][4] Cicero says so in the Academica, adding that the Greek word was a philosophers' term, not an everyday one.^[3][5] Scholastic philosophy passed it on.^[4] The early 12th-century Franco-Provençal qualitaz of Albéric de Pisançon is the TLFi's first record.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon (about 1119) and Albéric de Pisançon's Alexandre (early 12th century) use it for the manner of being of a thing.^[7][6][2]

Semantic evolution

From the 13th century it applied to the good or bad moral disposition of a person, and, from the 17th century (Voiture, 1633) it took the positive sense of a good quality.^[2][6] Of goods it meant what makes them recommendable (1671), and de qualité came to mean excellent.^[2] Also from the 13th century it named a person's civil or social rank, then noble birth (Montaigne, 1580), whence homme or personne de qualité, a noble (1554), now an allusion to the Ancien Régime.^[2][5] En qualité de, in the capacity of, dates from 1549, and in law qualités are the names and titles of the parties to a judgment.^[6][2] Qualité de la vie appeared about 1970.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1119 – In Philippe de Thaon.^[7]
• 13th century – A person's disposition; social rank.^[2]
• 1549 – En qualité de.^[6]
• 1554 – Personne de qualité, a noble.^[2]
• 1633 – A good quality, in Voiture.^[6]
• 1671 – Of goods.^[2]
• c. 1970 – Qualité de la vie.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (philosophy) A manner of being, an aspect of things that cannot be measured, as opposed to quantity.^[8][4]
2. The degree of excellence of a thing: marchandise de bonne, de mauvaise qualité, de qualité, of high quality: préférer la qualité à la quantité.^[8][9]
3. A good trait of a person; a virtue.^[9][5]
4. Capacity, status: en qualité de, avoir qualité pour, to be entitled to.^[6][7]
5. (dated) Noble birth: un homme de qualité.^[2][5]

Word family

• qualitatif

Related words

• quel
• qualifier
• Latin quālitās
• English quality

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)