scrutin

Forms

scrutin m (plural scrutins)^[1] Old French crutine, crestine (13th century), Middle French escrutine (1326) and scrutine (1413); the form scrutin is a remaking of 1465.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin scrūtinium, in the phrase per viam scrūtiniī (“by way of a ballot”) (12th century).^[3][1] In Late Latin scrūtinium meant “a searching, an examination”, and Church usage specialized it for the sounding of opinions; it comes from Latin scrūtor (“to search, examine”), the source of scruter.^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rutebeuf has par crutine “by secret vote” in 1261, and faire crestine meant to hold an election by secret ballot (about 1260).^[3][2] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date par crutine to 1251.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

In medieval French the word lived mostly in phrases: par voie d'escrutine (1326), par voye de scrutin (1465), par scrutin (1671).^[3][2] From 1326 it also named the examination of the opinions of monks by a superior choosing the holder of an office, whence the lay sense “examination, careful search” (1380).^[2] Bloch and Wartburg note that escrutine and scrutin were used in the old Latin sense of a search, as by Chapelain in 1638.^[4] As a term of history, scrutin also named the ceremony at which catechumens were questioned on the faith (1690).^[2][7]

These uses died out, and the word spread only in the middle of the 18th century;^[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg credit the abbé de Saint-Pierre with making it a political term.^[2][4] The Revolution gave it the sense of the whole electoral operation (decree of 1789), with scrutin de liste (1789) and dépouiller le scrutin (1789); scrutin couvert, now scrutin secret, is recorded in 1793 and scrutin d'arrondissement in 1885.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1261 – Rutebeuf writes par crutine “by secret vote”.^[3]
• 1326 – Par voie d'escrutine appears in a royal archive document.^[3]
• 1465 – Par voye de scrutin appears in the royal ordinances.^[3][2]
• 1690 – It is used of the questioning of catechumens in the early Church.^[2]
• 1789 – A decree of 14 December uses scrutin de liste, and the word takes the sense “electoral operation”.^[3][2]
• 1793 – Scrutin couvert (now scrutin secret) is recorded.^[2]
• 1885 – Scrutin d'arrondissement appears.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vote cast by means of ballot papers or other marks placed in an urne and then counted: procéder au scrutin.^[3][6]
2. An electoral operation as a whole, from the casting of the ballots to the counting and the announcement of the results: tour de scrutin, ouvrir le scrutin.^[6][8][2]
3. A method of election: scrutin uninominal, scrutin de liste, scrutin majoritaire, scrutin proportionnel.^[6][8]
4. (history) In the early Church, a ceremony at which catechumens were examined.^[7][2]

Word family

• scrutiner

Related words

• scruter
• Latin scrūtinium

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)