spontané

Forms

spontané (feminine spontanée, masculine plural spontanés, feminine plural spontanées)^[1] Old French spontainne (feminine, 1284), a more popular form.^[2][3] The masculine was long spelled spontanée, and was still noted in that form by the Académie in 1798.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Late Latin spontāneus (“voluntary, spontaneous”),^{[4][2][5][1][6]} attested in the 4th century,^[4] from classical Latin spōns (“free will”), used only in the ablative sponte (“of one's own accord”) and the genitive.^[4][2][3] Rey connects the noun with spondeō (“to pledge”).^[2] The modern form remade the older spontainne, found in a phrase meaning “of one's own free will” in 1284.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1541 Jean Canappe uses spontanee in physiology, of a movement that happens of itself without being caused.^[4] The derived adverb shows that the adjective existed in the 14th century.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word entered French through physiology, of movements such as the heartbeat that seem to happen of themselves, and of states with no visible cause: Paré wrote of a lassitude spontanée about 1560.^[2][7] Medicine spoke of an évacuation spontanée, not brought on by a remedy (1690), and of a maladie spontanée (1835), uses now gone.^[2][8] In biology génération spontanée (Buffon, about 1775) named a theory that Pasteur's microbiology overturned,^[2][4] and botanists have spoken of plantes spontanées, growing wild without being sown, since 1798.^[4][2]

In the moral sense, of what one does without being urged or forced, Furetière has it in 1690, noting that spontaneous actions are more deserving than others.^[4][8] Bloch and Wartburg say the word only became common in the 17th century.^[5] By extension it was used of actions done without reflection (about 1850) and of a person who shows at once what he feels (1860, or 1866 in Amiel according to the TLFi).^[2][4] From about 1955 it has also described what escapes established rules and control.^[2]

Timeline

• 1284 – Old French spontainne appears in de spontainne volantei.^[2][4]
• 1381 – The adverb is recorded as spontaneement.^[2]
• 1541 – Jean Canappe uses spontanee in physiology.^[4]
• c. 1560 – Paré writes of a lassitude spontanée.^[2][7]
• 1690 – Furetière records the moral sense and the medical évacuation spontanée.^[4][2]
• 1695 – Leibniz uses the derivative spontanéité.^[5]
• c. 1775 – Buffon writes of génération spontanée.^[2][4]
• 1798 – The Académie records plantes spontanées.^[4]
• 1860 – First applied to a person who expresses feelings at once.^[2][8]
• c. 1955 – Used of what escapes control or established rules.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Done of one's own accord, without being urged or forced by others: candidature spontanée, an unsolicited job application.^[9][2]
2. Happening of itself, without being provoked or with no apparent cause: génération spontanée.^[9][4]
3. (botany) Growing wild in a country without being sown or cultivated: plantes spontanées.^[4][2]
4. Happening without the will taking part; involuntary.^[9]
5. Done or expressed directly, without reflection or calculation; instinctive, sincere: une réponse spontanée.^[9][2]
6. Of a person, acting on the first impulse, without calculating: un enfant très spontané.^[9][2]
7. Not controlled by established rules; unofficial, close to sauvage in this use.^[2]

Word family

• spontanéité
• spontanément

Related words

• spontanéisme
• Latin spontāneus

Usage notes

French words from Latin adjectives in -āneus are now spelled -ané in the masculine (momentané, spontané); the first four editions of the Académie's dictionary wrote -anée, and the fifth adopted the present spelling.^[1][4]

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 k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 212b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert