roture

Forms

roture f (plural rotures)^[1] Middle French roupture (1406) and routure (15th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin ruptūra (“clearing of land, cleared land”), from ruptūra (“a breaking, fracture”), derived from rumpō (“to break”).^{[2][4][5][1][6]} In Medieval Latin the noun meant the breaking up of new land (875, Arles) and the cleared land itself (819), especially in the west of the Gallo-Roman area, and also the rent owed on such land (1072, Oléron).^[2] The Latin verb itself came to mean “to clear land” (867), the source of Old French rompre in that sense, still alive in some dialects such as that of Berry.^[2][5][4] From the rent owed to the lord for a cleared field, the word passed to the land owing it, and then to an estate that was not noble.^[5][2][4] The sense “condition of a person who is not noble” is, for the TLFi, a back-formation from roturier, recorded earlier (1271).^[2] It is a doublet of rupture, a learned borrowing.^[4][1]

Compare Spanish rotura “cleared land”.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old French roture meant “opening, tear” in Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval (1174–1187), a sense that died out.^[2][4][8] The sense of the modern word is first recorded in 1406, as roupture, in an account of the duchy of Orléans, for newly cleared land.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Rey thinks the use for newly cleared land subject to a rent must be older than its first record in 1406, judging by roturier.^[4] In 1549 Robert Estienne records terre tenue en roture, land held as a non-noble estate.^[2] The condition of a person who is not noble is first found in Nicot (1606), though Rey thinks it older;^[2][4] by metonymy the word named the commoners as a class in Cotgrave (1611).^[2][4] In classical French en roture meant figuratively “morally debased” (Boileau, 1663–1665).^[2][4] In the history of New France it named a landholding below the level of a seigneury.^[1]

Timeline

• 1174–1187 – Old French roture “tear” in Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval.^[2]
• 1271 – The derivative roturier is first recorded.^[2]
• 1406 – Roupture “newly cleared land” in Orléans.^[2][4]
• 1549 – Terre tenue en roture in Robert Estienne.^[2]
• 1606 – Nicot records the condition of a non-noble person.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave uses it for the commoners as a body.^[2][4]
• 1663 – Boileau uses en roture figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) The status of land or an estate that is not noble.^[9][10]
2. (literary) The condition of a commoner, lack of nobility: un homme de roture.^[9][2][11]
3. The commoners as a class, as opposed to the noblesse.^[9][2][11]
4. (Quebec, historical) A landholding in New France below the level of a seigneury.^[1]

Word family

• roturier

Related words

• rupture
• rompre
• Latin ruptūra

Usage notes

Littré rejects the view that roturier comes from Latin rotulus (“roll”), from rents written on a roll, since roture could not be formed from rotulier.^[10]

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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 580a
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)