séminaire

Forms

séminaire m (plural séminaires)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sēminārium (“nursery garden, seed plot”), which in Ecclesiastical Latin of the 16th century meant a seminary for training priests.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is the neuter of sēminārius (“relating to seed”), from sēmen (“seed”).^[4][3] Bloch and Wartburg tie the new church sense to the seminaries set up by the Council of Trent in 1545.^[5][6]

The senses “teaching establishment in Germany” and “working group of students” were taken again from German Seminar, of the same origin.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record (1551), in Le Roy's translation of Plato's Timaeus, has the classical Latin sense “vital principle of a phenomenon”, which did not last.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word was also used in the senses of the Latin: a nursery garden (1599) and, figuratively, a source or cause.^[4] About 1586 Étienne Pasquier wrote that the Jesuits called their schools for the young seminaires, “nurseries of the Catholic religion”.^[2] Only the sense “training establishment” survived after the 18th century: petit séminaire is recorded in 1681 and grand séminaire in 1876.^[4][3] By metonymy it named the pupils and masters (1718), the years of study (about 1770) and the buildings.^[4][3] Monet (1636) used it by analogy for any place that breeds people: La France est un vrai Seminaire de geans de guerre.^[2]

From German, the word named public teaching establishments in Germany (1845) and a working group of students led by a professor (1893).^[4][2] By about 1950 it was also used for a meeting of specialists, and then in business life.^[4]

Timeline

• 1551 – Le Roy uses it for the “vital principle” of a phenomenon.^[2]
• c. 1586 – Pasquier records seminaires as the Jesuits' word for their schools.^[2]
• 1599 – It means a nursery garden.^[4]
• 1609 – The derivative séminariste appears.^[5][4]
• 1636 – Monet uses it figuratively for a breeding ground.^[2]
• 1681 – Petit séminaire is recorded.^[2]
• 1718 – The Académie uses it for the whole body of a seminary.^[2]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records it for German teaching establishments.^[2]
• 1876 – Grand séminaire is recorded.^[3]
• 1893 – Gaston Paris uses it for a working group of students.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Catholicism) A seminary, an establishment where young men are trained for the priesthood, also grand séminaire.^[7][2]
2. Petit séminaire: a Catholic secondary school.^[7]
3. The teachers and pupils of a seminary, or the years spent there.^[7][8]
4. A seminar, a working group of students led by a teacher.^[7][2]
5. A meeting of specialists or of staff for study or training: un séminaire de direction.^[4][9]

Word family

• séminariste

Related words

• semer
• semence
• Latin sēminārium

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)