souloir

Forms

souloir^[1] Old French suleir (1080, Chanson de Roland), soleir and soloir.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin soleō (“to be accustomed”).^[3][4][2][1] In Old French it expressed habitual action or permanence.^[3]

Cognate with Italian solere, Occitan soler, Spanish soler and Portuguese soer.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Jonas fragment (937–952), in the present solt followed by an infinitive: si cum il semper solt haveir “as he was always wont to have”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French the verb was used in all tenses, as in the Chanson de Roland and the Roman de la Rose.^[5][2] From the 16th century it was hardly used except in the imperfect, and by the early 17th century only that tense remained.^[3][4] In 1647 Vaugelas called it old, while wishing it were still in use.^[3] Chateaubriand revived it in 1803 with de before the infinitive, which Littré criticised because the old usage had no de.^[3]

Timeline

• 937–952 – The present solt appears in the Jonas fragment.^[3]
• 1080 – The infinitive suleir appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• Early 12th century – Benedeit uses the imperfect soleient in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[3]
• 16th century – The verb survives almost only in the imperfect.^[3]
• 1647 – Vaugelas calls the word old.^[3]
• 1803 – Chateaubriand uses souloit de in the Génie du christianisme.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, literary) To be accustomed to, to be in the habit of; used almost only in the imperfect.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• Latin soleō

Usage notes

Littré already called it an obsolete verb of which only the imperfect remained, and that barely.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette