singularité

Forms

singularité f (plural singularités)^[1] Old French singulariteit (late 12th century); the modern form appears in the late 14th century.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman singulereté and singulerité.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin singulāritās (“the fact of being unique”),^[2][3][5] a derivative of singulāris (“single, unique”) (see singulier).^[2][3] In Late Latin the word also meant the grammatical singular and unity, and in Christian Latin the unity of God and the exemplary character of a virtue.^[2][3]

Cognate with Old Occitan singularitat and Spanish singularidad.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest form, singulariteit, is found in the Old French Sermons of Saint Bernard (late 12th century) for an extraordinary way of acting, thinking or speaking.^[2][7] About 1200 the Dialogues of Saint Gregory use it for the rare and exceptional quality of what stands out (singulariteit d'abstinence).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word named what makes a thing or person rare and exceptional; in classical French it was used especially for “excellence”, a sense now lost.^[3] As the opposite of plurality it has meant “the quality of being unique” since about 1200, mostly in learned use;^[3] in grammar the sense “character of the singular” is found once in 1411–1432 and again from 1875.^[2][3] The Ménagier de Paris (about 1393) counts singularité, wanting to say or do what no one else does, among the branches of pride.^[6][2]

From 1544 it also meant the quality of what is odd or unusual, especially of strange ways of thinking or speaking.^[3] A singularité became an odd act or fact (1511) and a curious object (1690, Furetière).^[2] Modern science uses it in meteorology (1964) and, after the English, in mathematics and physics.^[2][1]

Timeline

• c. 1190 – Singulariteit in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[2][5]
• c. 1200 – Used of the exceptional quality of something in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory.^[2]
• c. 1393 – The form singularité in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2]
• 1411–1432 – An isolated use for the grammatical singular.^[2]
• 1511 – Jean Lemaire de Belges's Singularitez de Troye, for remarkable facts.^[2]
• 1544 – Maurice Scève uses it of oddness.^[3][7]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “curious object”.^[2]
• 1964 – A term of meteorology in the Larousse encyclopedia.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The quality of what is unique in its kind; individuality.^[8][9]
2. The quality of what is odd, original or unusual; peculiarity, eccentricity: la singularité de ses goûts.^[9][8]
3. An odd act or remark that shows this quality.^[8][9]
4. (linguistics) The distinctive feature of the singular number.^[2][8]
5. (mathematics, physics) A singularity, a particular feature occurring at a singular point of a curve or surface.^[8][1]

Related words

• singulier
• singulièrement
• Latin singulāris
• English singularity

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert