Etymology and origin of the French word teneur
teneur1 content
Etymology tree of teneur1
From the same root · teneur1
Pronunciation
- /tə.nœʁ/[1]
Forms
teneur f (plural teneurs)[1] Old French tenur and tenor, also teners in the 13th century.[2][3]
Etymology
The word for the content of a text is borrowed from Latin tenor (“uninterrupted course, continuity”), a noun formed from teneō (“to hold”).[3][4][5][6][7] In Late Latin, from the 6th century, lawyers used the noun for the provisions or wording of a law, and the French sense “exact content of a document” (1257) was taken anew from this legal use.[4][6][5] Wiktionary allows also an Old French noun derived from tenir as its source.[1] It is a doublet of ténor.[1]
Compare Old Occitan tenor, Spanish tenor, Portuguese teor and Italian tenore.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is first found in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket (1174–1176), in d'une tenur “in a continuous course, one after the other”: Dous iraignes vit surdre del funz d'une tenur “he saw two spiders rise one after the other from the bottom [of the cup]”.[3][2]
Semantic evolution
The sense “continuity, uninterrupted course” lasted until the 17th century (it is still found in Descartes), as in tout d'une teneur “continuously” (1355, Bersuire).[4][3] From 1257 the word meant the exact content of a document, the sense that remains the main one;[3][4][6] Villon has selon cette teneur “according to this text” (1462).[3][4][6] It was extended to the arrangement of a plan (1563, Palissy) and to the spirit of a doctrine or of one's heart (1601, Charron; 1610, Deimier).[3]
In music it named the voice part now called ténor (1373 in Rey, 1377 in the TLFi, both in Gace de la Buigne), then the singer of that part; competing with taille and ténor, this use died out in the 17th century.[4][3] From 1767 (Rousseau) it names the held melody on which medieval polyphony was built.[4][8]
The scientific sense “proportion of a substance contained in a body” is the latest: teneur en eau is recorded in 1866 (Daubrée), and the sense spread in the 20th century.[3][4] It produced teneurmètre (1973), a hybrid formation with -mètre.[4]
Timeline
- 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses d'une tenur “one after the other”.[3]
- 1257 – First used for the content of a document.[3][6][4]
- 1355 – Bersuire writes tout d'une teneur “continuously”.[3]
- 1373 – The voice part later called ténor is named teneur.[4]
- 1462 – Villon writes selon cette teneur.[3]
- 1767 – Rousseau uses it for the held melody of medieval polyphony.[4][8]
- 1866 – Teneur en eau marks the scientific sense.[3][4]
- 1973 – Teneurmètre appears.[4]
Meanings
Noun
- The exact content or literal text of a document or of something said, its tenor: Le notaire nous a lu la teneur du testament.[9][8][2]
- The proportion of a given substance contained in a body or mixture: teneur en: La teneur en sucre de ce jus est trop élevée.[9][8][2]
- (music) The reciting note of psalmody, held by one group of singers, and the held main melody of medieval polyphony.[3][2][4][1]
- (dated) Continuity, uninterrupted course.[3][2]
Word family
- teneurmètre
teneur2 holder
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Derivation
- First attested
- c. 1175 Ducs de Normandie
- Ultimate origin
- Latin teneō
From the same root · teneur2
Pronunciation
- /tə.nœʁ/[1]
Forms
teneur m (plural teneurs, feminine teneuse)[1] Old French tenëor, then teneur (1278).[3]
Etymology
The word for one who holds is formed from French tenir + -eur, first as Old French tenëor.[3][5][9][6][10] tenir goes back to Latin teneō (“to hold”).[6]
Earliest recorded meaning
About 1175, in the Ducs de Normandie, tenëor is one who holds land in the feudal system.[3] The Grand Robert glosses the 12th-century word as “possessor”.[5]
Semantic evolution
The feudal sense gave way to more general ones: teneurs de tavernes “tavern keepers” (1545, Jean Bouchet).[3][11] Bookkeeping produced teneur de livres, recorded in 1670 by Bloch and Wartburg and as juré teneur de livres in Richelet (1680); in 1718 the Académie defines it as the clerk who keeps a merchant's books.[6][3] Other trades followed: in hawking the third bird to attack the heron (1743), at sea the ship's boy who holds the cable as it leaves the capstan (1775), and in printing the teneur de copie (1843, Balzac).[3]
Timeline
- c. 1175 – Tenëor names a feudal holder of land.[3]
- 1278 – The form teneur is recorded.[3]
- 1545 – Jean Bouchet writes teneurs de tavernes.[3][11]
- 1680 – Richelet records juré teneur de livres.[3]
- 1718 – The Académie defines the book-keeping clerk.[3]
- 1743 – First used in hawking.[3]
- 1843 – Balzac uses teneur de copie.[3]
Meanings
Noun
Related words
Usage notes
Littré gives a third headword teneur, a plain-chant term for the dominant part of psalmody, which he calls the same word as teneur “content”; the TLFi treats this sense under that word.[2][3] From the 15th to the 17th century teneur was also a singer of the tenor part.[3][11][12] Old and Middle French also had a feminine tenor, tenour, teneur “land held from a lord”, derived from tenir, recorded from the 12th to the 15th century; it has a separate source from teneur “content”.[3][6]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 223b
- ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 220b
- ^ a b c Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
- ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Teneur.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/teneur. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.
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