stupeur

Forms

stupeur f (plural stupeurs)^[1] Middle French had the Latin form stupor and the spellings stupour and stuppeur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin stupor (“numbness, insensibility”),^[4][2][5][1] from Latin stupeō (“to be numb, stand still, be astounded”).^[4][2][6] Rey calls the French word a francisation of an earlier form ⟨stupor⟩ (14th century).^[2]

Rey connects the Latin verb with an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *(s)teu- (“to strike”), also in tundō (“to beat”) and Ancient Greek τύπτω (túptō, “to strike”).^[2] Littré derived it, like stō (“to stand”), from a root meaning “to stand”, a view of its time.^[7]

Cognate with Old Occitan stupor, Spanish estupor and Italian stupore.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi first finds it in 1377, in Évrart de Conti's Problèmes d'Aristote, as a medical word for a general numbness.^[4] Rey and the Grand Robert date it to 1333,^[2][5] and the DMF quotes Bersuire (about 1354–59) for a numbness that seized the limbs.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Rey says that from the 14th century it was already used of an astonishment so deep that it stops all reaction, but that this sense became the main one only in the 18th century;^[2] the TLFi dates the immobility caused by deep astonishment to 1531.^[4] Ambroise Paré, in the 16th century, defined it as a lessening of movement and feeling.^[7] In pathology it has named the apparent suspension of all physical and mental activity since 1762,^[2][9] and it was used in the plural by Balzac in 1836.^[4]

The learned words stupide (1377) and stupidité (1541) come from the same Latin family.^[6][2]

Timeline

• 1333 – First record, as Rey and the Grand Robert date it.^[2][5]
• c. 1354–59 – Bersuire uses it for a numbness of the limbs.^[8]
• 1377 – Évrart de Conti uses it in medicine.^[4]
• 1531 – It means the stillness caused by deep astonishment.^[4]
• 1762 – The Académie records it in pathology.^[9]
• 1836 – Balzac uses it in the plural.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) A state of deep inertia and insensibility with general numbness;^[10][11] (psychiatry) a state of immobility and mutism.^[10][11]
2. Deep astonishment that leaves one unable to react; stupefaction: frappé de stupeur, muet de stupeur.^[10][11]

Related words

• stupide
• stupidité
• stupéfaction
• Latin stupor

References

1. ^ a b c 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. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)