rancœur

Forms

rancœur f (plural rancœurs)^[1] Old French rancor (about 1190), rancour (13th century), rancuer (1317), Middle French ranckeur (1421); rancœur about 1460–70.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rancor, inherited from Late Latin rancor (“rancidness”), which in Christian Latin took the figurative sense “resentment, grudge”.^[2][5][3] The Latin noun is derived from Latin ranceō (“to be rancid”).^[3][4] The modern spelling was remade after cœur in the 15th century.^[3][6][1]

Cognate with Italian rancore and Spanish rancor, also rencor.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as rancor in the Sermons de saint Bernard, at the end of the 12th century, already with the figurative sense of bitterness or grudge.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word came into French with the figurative sense of lasting resentment, and since Baudelaire (1856) especially the bitterness left by a disappointment or an injustice.^[3] In the 16th century it also meant “malice” and “disgust”, senses it has lost.^[3] The concrete sense “rancidness” was left to rance and rancidité.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Rancor appears in the Sermons de saint Bernard.^[4][2]
• 1317 – The form rancuer is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1421 – Ranckeur appears in the cartulary of Bouvignes.^[2]
• c. 1470 – Georges Chastellain writes rancœur.^[2]
• 1856 – Baudelaire uses it of the bitterness left by a disappointment.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) Lasting resentment or bitterness kept after a disappointment or an injustice; rancour.^[7][8][9]

Related words

• rance
• rancune
• Late Latin rancor

References

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