Etymologically
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suivre

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /sɥivʁ/[1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [sɥiv(r)][1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [sɥir][1]
  • IPA (Louisiana): [swir][1]

Forms

suivre[1] Old French segre (about 980), sivre (1080), siure (about 1175, from il siut), suire (about 1280); suivre (1273) from a crossing of sivre and suire.[2][3] Old and Middle French also had siouvre, sievre, sieure, siuwir and suivir.[2][4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sivre, earlier “segre”, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sequere, a variant of the classical deponent Latin sequī (“to follow”).[5][2][6][7] Bloch and Wartburg explain “suivre” from the 3rd person “il suit”, earlier “siut” by metathesis.[6][4] The Latin verb belongs to an Indo-European root “*sekʷ-” “to follow”, found in Old Irish “sechur” “I follow” and Lithuanian “sekù”.[2][8]

Cognate with Italian seguire, Old Occitan segre, Catalan seguir, Spanish seguir and Portuguese seguir.[8][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Passion of Clermont (late 10th century) has the gerund seguan, going behind someone who moves;[5][2] the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has Sis filz le siut “his son follows him” and Il me sivrat ad Ais “he will follow me to Aix”.[5]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th century it meant to go away with someone and share their fate (Marie de France's mar me siwistes);[5][2] at the end of the 14th century it meant to follow so as to watch (Eustache Deschamps), and suivre de l'œil dates from 1640.[5] From about 1119 it also meant to act after someone's example, and soon to obey an impulse, to conform to orders and rules (suivre la mode, Molière, 1665).[5][2] The sense “to come after in order or time” is from the 16th century (le clair jour suyt la tenebreuse nuict, 1557), and Racine's suivre qqn au tombeau (1664) is to die soon after someone.[5][2]

Suivre son chemin and suivre les traces de qqn go back to the 12th and 13th centuries.[5][2] The intellectual senses, to follow a speaker's argument (Furetière, 1694), to keep up with a course or a case (suivre un malade, 1784), followed, faire suivre is the postal formula “please forward” (1883).[5][11] The compound poursuivre took over the old sense “to seek to reach”.[2]

Timeline

  • Late 10th century – Seguan in the Clermont Passion.[5]
  • c. 1100 – Siut, sivrat in the Chanson de Roland.[5]
  • 1119 – “To follow an example”, in Philippe de Thaon.[5]
  • 1273 – The form suivre.[2]
  • 1557 – Of succession in time.[5]
  • 1640 – Suivre de l'œil.[5]
  • 1665 – Suivre la mode in Molière.[5]
  • 1694 – Following an argument, in Furetière.[5]
  • 1883 – Faire suivre on letters.[11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To follow, go after: suivez-moi, suivre qqn de près.[8][12]
  2. To accompany, go with: suivre qqn en exil.[10][5]
  3. To come after (in order or time): les jours qui suivirent, comme suit: as follows, à suivre: to be continued.[8][1]
  4. To go along (a road, a direction): suivre la rivière.[8][5]
  5. To comply with, follow (advice, a rule, a fashion): suivre un régime.[8][5]
  6. To follow, understand (a speaker, an argument): vous me suivez ?.[1][5]
  7. To attend, take (a course); to keep up with (events): suivre un cours, suivre l'actualité.[1][8]
  8. Faire suivre: to forward (mail).[11][8]

Word family

  • ensuivre
  • poursuivre
  • suite
  • suiveur
  • suivi
  • suivant
  • second
  • secte
  • conséquence
  • Latin sequor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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
  6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 488b
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)