territoire

Forms

territoire m (plural territoires)^[1] Middle French terretoire (1278), terratoire (1311), teritore (1392) and territoire (about 1380).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin territōrium (“land around a town, district”), with the suffix adapted to French.^[4][2][5] The Latin word is derived from terra (“earth, land”), whence terre.^[4][6] The inherited doublet is terroir, from an altered form of the same Latin word.^[4][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as terretoire in 1278, in letters of Alis of Savoy, for a stretch of country forming a political district.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word was rare before the 17th century and spread in the 18th, with Montesquieu and Rousseau.^[2][7] It was used of the area of a judge's jurisdiction (1680, Richelet) and of the land under a state's sovereignty (1756, Voltaire); in classical French it could also mean the same as terroir (1660–61), and, from 1690 it named a bishop's right to exercise his office in a place.^[4][3][2]

Figurative uses appear in 1621 (territoire du vice), of a person's own domain in 1852 (Flaubert), and in anatomy in 1878 (Claude Bernard).^[4] In the 20th century ethology took it for the area an animal marks out and defends against others, especially of its own species, and the sense was then applied to people.^[2] In the United States, Littré notes, it named a region not yet admitted as a state.^[6]

Timeline

• 1278 – Terretoire in letters of Alis of Savoy.^[4]
• c. 1380 – The spelling territoire in the glossary Aalma.^[3]
• 1621 – Camus uses it figuratively.^[4]
• 1680 – Richelet defines it as the extent of a judge's jurisdiction.^[4]
• 1756 – Voltaire uses it for the land under a state's authority.^[3]
• 1878 – Claude Bernard's anatomical territoire des cellules.^[4]
• 1916 – Territoire aérien “airspace”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An area of land where a human group lives, especially the land under the authority of a state: le territoire national.^[8][6]
2. (law) The area within which an authority (a judge, a commune) has jurisdiction.^[8][4]
3. A dependent territory with a particular status: territoire d'outre-mer, territoire sous tutelle.^[4][1]
4. (ethology) The area an animal claims and defends.^[2][8]
5. (figurative) A field or domain that a person regards as their own.^[2][4]

Word family

• territorial
• exterritorialité

Related words

• terre
• terroir
• Latin territōrium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 264a
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert