Etymologically
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qualité

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 18 October 2026 at 15:34. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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)