régulier

Forms

régulier (feminine régulière, masculine plural réguliers, feminine plural régulières)^[1] Old French reguler (about 1119), later regulier (1308), with the variant reglier (about 1265).^[2][3][4] Popular Old French forms riuler, reuler and rieuler were reshaped after reule, rieule “rule”.^[2][5][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French reguler, borrowed from Latin regulāris (“bar-shaped, serving as a rule, canonical”), from rēgula (“rule”) (whence règle).^[2][5][6][1] Its first sense renders a meaning that the Latin word took only in Medieval Latin, as a term of calendar reckoning (11th century).^[2][5] The suffix -er was replaced by -ier at the beginning of the 14th century, as in bouclier, sanglier and singulier.^[2][4][5]

Littré lists Occitan reglar, Spanish regular and Italian regolare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Comput (about 1119) has jurz regulers, the fixed number of days that, added to a figure varying from year to year, gave the weekday on which each month began.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Under the influence of règle, the adjective was applied from the early 13th century to what conforms to moral rules, and in the classical period to a person who kept the duties of morality and religion (1671).^[2][5] That use has aged, but the related familiar sense “playing fair, keeping the code of honesty” revived it in 1922.^[5][2] Already in Old French it took from Church Latin the sense “living under a religious rule” (1174–1176), as opposed to séculier; the noun régulier for a member of such an order is recorded in 1596.^[2][5]

From “done in due form” (1552) came the legal sense (1676) and uses in grammar and versification (1690); classical criticism applied it to works written by the rules of the 17th century (1660).^[5][2] Soldiers came in with troupes régulières (1751).^[2][5]

A second line of meaning moved from “rule” to “steady rhythm”: uniform in time (1270), harmonious in proportions (about 1377 in geometry, 1666 of beauty), recurring at fixed intervals (1808), and habitual rather than occasional (1854).^[2][5] In 1930 slang made the feminine noun régulière a man's wife or recognised mistress.^[2] In Quebec régulier also means “ordinary”, a calque of the English word regular.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1119 – Jurz regulers in Philippe de Thaon's Comput.^[2]
• 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it of the religious orders.^[2]
• Early 13th century – Reiguleir “in keeping with moral rules”.^[2]
• 1270 – “Uniform, steady” in a translation of Aristotle's Meteorologica.^[2]
• 1308 – The form regulier with the suffix -ier.^[4][3]
• 1660 – Corneille calls a play très régulière for its unity of place.^[2]
• 1676 – Une procédure régulière in legal use.^[2][5]
• 1690 – Furetière records une conjugaison reguliere.^[2]
• 1751 – Voltaire writes of troupes régulières.^[2]
• 1922 – Familiar sense “fair, playing by the rules”.^[2][5]
• 1930 – Slang régulière “wife, steady mistress”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. In keeping with the rules, not an exception: verbes réguliers; in versification, opposed to free verse.^[8][7]
2. Done in accordance with the law or regulations: un jugement régulier.^[8][2]
3. (familiar) Fair, playing by the rules: le coup est dur, mais régulier;^[8][5] à la régulière “fairly”.^[8][5]
4. Symmetrical, well proportioned: un visage régulier, une écriture régulière.^[8][2]
5. (geometry) Of a polygon, having equal sides and angles; of a polyhedron, having congruent regular faces.^[8][1]
6. Steady, uniform in speed or rhythm: un pouls régulier.^[8][2]
7. Recurring at equal intervals: à intervalles réguliers.^[8][2]
8. Habitual, not occasional: une ligne régulière.^[8][2]
9. Punctual, dependable in one's habits.^[2][1]
10. (religion) Belonging to a religious order living under a rule, as opposed to séculier: clergé régulier.^[2][7]
11. (military) Of troops, belonging to the permanent army: troupes régulières.^[2][5]

Noun

1. (dated, slang) One's regular partner; the feminine régulière is a man's wife or recognised mistress.^[1][2]

Word family

• irrégulier
• régulièrement

Related words

• règle
• régularité
• réguler
• Latin rēgula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d 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 h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 224b
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert