quarante

Forms

quarante (invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French quarante, inherited from Vulgar Latin quaranta,^[2][3][4] a popular form attested with ⟨rr⟩ in a 5th-century inscription from Gaul.^[2][5] It is a contraction of classical Latin quadrāgintā (“forty”), through intermediate forms such as *quadraginta and *quadranta.^[2][5] Rey analyses the Latin word as quadra-, probably an old neuter related to quattuor (“four”) (whence quatre), and -gintā, as in the source of vingt;^[5] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *kʷetwr̥(d)ḱomt (“four tens”).^[1]

Cognate with Italian quaranta, Occitan caranta, Catalan coranta, Spanish cuarenta and Portuguese quarenta.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is quaranta in the Passion of the late 10th century, meaning “four times ten”;^[2] the Chanson de Roland (1080) has de ses barons quarante.^[7][8] The modern form quarante is found about 1140 in the Voyage de Charlemagne.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Catholic liturgy prière des quarante heures, or simply les quarante heures (1680), was the expiatory prayer during which the sacrament was exposed for three days.^[5][9] As a noun the word named the number forty (1690) and, by metonymy, the figures that write it.^[5] Le trente et quarante, a card game, is in the Académie's dictionary of 1694.^[2]

From the 1760s les Quarante are the forty members of the Académie française (Linguet, 1764, Madame de Staël, 1786).^[2][10] The familiar s'en moquer comme de l'an quarante “not to care in the least” is recorded from 1791; its origin is obscure, and the least unlikely explanation takes an quarante as an alteration of Alcoran, the Koran, though Rey also cites a supposed royalist joke about a “year forty” of the Republic that would never come.^[2][5]

Timeline

• Late 10th century – Quaranta in the Passion.^[2]
• 1080 – Quarante in the Chanson de Roland.^[7][8]
• c. 1140 – The form quarante in the Voyage de Charlemagne.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet records les quarante heures.^[9]
• 1694 – The Académie records the card game trente et quarante.^[2]
• 1764 – Linguet uses it for a member of the Académie française.^[2]
• 1791 – S'en foutre comme de l'an quarante appears in a Père Duchêne letter.^[2]

Meanings

Numeral

1. forty, four times ten.^[11][12]
2. Fortieth, in numbering: page quarante.^[11][9]
3. Les Quarante: the members of the Académie française.^[12][2]
4. (Catholicism, dated) Les quarante heures: prayers lasting three days before the sacrament.^[12][9]

Noun

1. The number forty, or a number 40 (a minute, a house number, a percentage).^[11][5]
2. (tennis) The third point of a game.^[11]

Word family

• quarantaine
• quarantième

Related words

• quatre
• Latin quadrāgintā

Usage notes

S'en moquer comme de l'an quarante means “not to care about it at all”.^[2][9] A separate slang word, in se mettre en carante ou en quarante (1905), means “in position to strike, ready to fight”; it is the feminine present participle of slang se carrer “to stand firm on one's feet”, and the spelling quarante is perhaps due to the numeral.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1391a
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert