Etymologically
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souverain

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /su.vʁɛ̃/[1]

Forms

souverain (feminine souveraine, masculine plural souverains, feminine plural souveraines)[1] Old French suverain (about 1050), soverain (1160–1170), souverain (12th century).[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French soverain, inherited from Vulgar Latin *superānus (“upper; supreme”), derived from Latin super (“above”).[2][4][3][1][5][6] The Latin word is not attested in classical texts but is found in Medieval Latin;[4] the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert speak of an adaptation of Medieval Latin “superanus”, from classical superus (“upper”).[7][8] The same source gave Italian soprano, Old Occitan sobiran (whence the surname Soubiran) and Spanish soberano[2][4][9]; Italian sovrano comes from French.[2][4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) suverain means supreme, excellent, highest of its kind.[10][2]

Semantic evolution

Souverain first described God, li suverains reis (early 12th century), and what belongs to his authority, then a person holding political power (1160–1170).[10][2] It also qualified whatever surpasses all others, as in souverain bien (about 1225), souverain remède “sovereign remedy” (1539) and souverain mépris.[10][2][11]

In law a cour souveraine judges without appeal (1405), and also from Charron (1601) an état souverain depends on no other power[10][4]; souveraineté is from the 12th century.[10][4] As a noun, souverain is a monarch (about 1175), and le souverain pontife the pope.[10][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Suverain “supreme” (Alexis).[10][2]
  • early 12th century – Of God (Brendan).[10][2]
  • 1160–1170 – Of a ruler.[2]
  • c. 1175 – A monarch (noun).[10]
  • 1405 – Souveraine cour, a court without appeal.[10]
  • 1539 – Souverain remède.[10]
  • 1601 – Estats souverains (Charron).[10]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Sovereign, independent, subject to no other power: État souverain.[8][1]
  2. Supreme, highest in its kind: le souverain bien, le souverain pontife.[8][11]
  3. (literary) Utmost, extreme: un souverain mépris; very effective: un remède souverain.[8][11]

Noun

  1. A monarch, a ruler.[8][1]

Word family

  • souveraineté

Usage notes

Souverain as the name of the English gold coin (1829) is a separate word, adapted from English sovereign, which itself came from French.[4][7][5][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 434a
  7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)