tempe

Forms

tempe f (plural tempes)^[1] Old French temple, masculine in the Chanson de Roland and feminine from about 1170; the form tempe appears in 1530, and temple was held the correct form until the 17th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French temple, inherited from Vulgar Latin *tempula, an alteration by change of ending of the Classical Latin plural of tempus (“temple of the head”).^[2][3][5] The form tempe, a remaking of the Old French word, is first found in 1530.^[3][2] The neuter plural was taken as a feminine singular, as Old French usually did with Latin neuter plurals.^[2][6] Medieval Latin templa is found in the 9th–10th-century Glasgow Antidotary.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg note that the old form is still used in the dialects.^[4]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: Benveniste, comparing Ancient Greek κρόταφος (krótaphos, “temple”), from a root meaning to strike, linked it to Proto-Indo-European *(s)temb(h)- (“to crush by striking”), while others take it as the same word as the Latin word for time, specialised for the time of the pulse.^[3]

Cognate with Italian tempia and Occitan templa.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has le temple for the side of the head: De sun cervel le temple en est rumpant.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “side of the head between the eye and the ear” is the original one and has not changed.^[3] In Old and Middle French the word also meant “cheek” (early 13th century), in the plural the hair at the temples, and by extension the brain (late 14th century).^[3] Ambroise Paré still wrote les temples in the 16th century.^[6] The Académie kept temple as a headword until 1740, and in 1771 the Trévoux dictionary noted that it was no longer said.^[2] In 1845 Bescherelle records the entomological sense, the side of an insect's head.^[2][7]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Temple (masculine) appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it as a feminine noun in Erec.^[2]
• 1530 – The form tempes is found in Jean Bouchet.^[2][3]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne's dictionary has tempes.^[2]
• 1740 – The Académie still lists temple.^[2]
• 1771 – The Trévoux dictionary says temple is no longer used.^[2]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense in entomology.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy, often plural) The temple, the flat side of the head between the eye, the forehead and the ear: des tempes grisonnantes.^[8][2]
2. (entomology) The side of an insect's head between the eye and the neck.^[7][6]

Related words

• temporal
• Latin tempus

Usage notes

A separate tempe is a butcher's term for a stick used to hold open the belly of a slaughtered animal; the Grand Robert dates it to 1765 (the Encyclopédie), with an earlier temple in 1281, and derives it probably from Latin templum in the sense “crossbar”.^[5][8][6]

References

1. ^ a b 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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert