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routine

Etymology and origin of the French word routine

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1559, Amyot
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French routine
English routine

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʁu.tin/[1]

Forms

routine f (plural routines)[1] Rotine (1559, Amyot), routine (1580, Montaigne).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from route with the suffix -ine,[2][3][5][6] in the figurative sense of “route” “way of proceeding, line of conduct”;[3] Littré glosses it as a little road one always takes out of habit.[7] “Route” is Vulgar Latin *rupta (“broken (way)”) (“via rupta”), from Latin rumpere (“to break”).[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Amyot's preface to Plutarch (1559) speaks of captains who did great things through the strength of their nature, aided by longue rotine d'usage: know-how acquired by long practice.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

Montaigne (1580) says he learned languages only par routine, by practice.[7][4] Cut off from route in meaning, it came to mean something done by habit, mechanically (Mme de Sévigné, 1673), whence the pejorative “unvarying way of acting or thinking” (La Quintinie, 1715) and la routine as blinkered conservatism opposed to innovation (1780).[3][4]

In the second half of the 20th century American English routine “procedure”, itself from French, gave the neutral de routine (mission de routine, 1966), and a second borrowing the computing sense (1968).[3][4] Routinier dates from 1761 (Rousseau).[5] English routine was borrowed in the 1670s.[9] In Louisiana French it is also a cow path.[1]

Timeline

  • 1559 – Rotine in Amyot.[2]
  • 1580 – Routine in Montaigne.[4]
  • 1617 – Routiner.[3]
  • 1670s – English routine.[9]
  • 1673 – A mechanical habit, in Mme de Sévigné.[4]
  • 1715 – Pejorative, in La Quintinie.[4]
  • 1761 – Routinier in Rousseau.[5]
  • 1966 – Mission de routine.[4]
  • 1968 – In computing.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Routine, habit: la routine quotidienne, sortir de la routine.[10][11]
  2. Rut, blinkered habit: croupir dans sa routine.[11][10]
  3. De routine: routine: un contrôle de routine.[11][3]
  4. (computing) A routine, subroutine.[11][10]
  5. (literary, dated) Know-how gained by practice.[4]

Word family

  • routinier

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Routine.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/routine. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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