régression

Forms

régression f (plural régressions)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin regressiō (“return, going back”), also a term of rhetoric, from the supine stem of regredior (“to go back”), from re- and gradior (“to step, walk”).^[2][3][4][5] In the sense of decline it was taken as the opposite of progression.^[2][3] The verb régresser is a back-formation from it.^[1] It is one of the family of degré, with digression.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1374 in Jean Golein's translation of the Rational des divins offices, in the sense “return, going back”.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense of moving back went out of use in the 16th century, and the word is rare until the 18th, when the Encyclopédie (1765) took it up for a figure of rhetoric that repeats the opening words at the end of a sentence in reverse order or explains them one by one.^[3][2]

In 1865 Littré and Robin's medical dictionary used it for the return of a tissue or organ to an earlier stage, a notion the TLFi traces to Wetter and Burdach.^[2][3] From this came the general sense of a falling back to a more primitive state, opposed to progress (1899, Clemenceau), and of a decrease (1893, Durkheim).^[2][3] Psychology adopted it in 1906; the GLLF dates the psychiatric sense from Porot (1952), and the geological one, the retreat of the sea, from 1923.^[2][4][3] In mathematics it names the reduction of data to a simplifying law, as in droite de régression.^[8]

Timeline

• 1374 – Jean Golein uses it for a “return”.^[2][3]
• 1532 – Bouchard's Chroniques de Bretagne still has it.^[2]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie gives the term of rhetoric.^[2][4]
• 1865 – Littré and Robin use it in physiology.^[2]
• 1893 – Durkheim uses it for a decrease.^[2]
• 1899 – Clemenceau uses it for a return to a more primitive stage.^[2][3]
• 1906 – It appears in psychology.^[2]
• 1923 – Larousse records the geological sense.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A movement back toward an earlier or lower state; decline, decrease: une régression des ventes, le chômage est en régression.^[8][9][2]
2. (biology) The return of a tissue or organ to an earlier form of its development; atrophy.^[8][2]
3. (psychology) A return to an earlier stage of emotional and mental development.^[8][9][10]
4. (geology) The retreat of the sea from land it covered.^[8][4]
5. (mathematics, statistics) The reduction of a complex set of data to a simplifying law; regression: droite de régression.^[8]
6. (rhetoric) A figure that repeats the opening words at the end of the sentence in reverse order, or explains them one by one.^[2][5][8]

Word family

• régresser

Related words

• progression
• digression
• régressif
• degré
• Latin regressiō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF