Etymologically
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territoire

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Pronunciation

  • /tɛ.ʁi.twaʁ/[1]
  • /te.ʁi.twaʁ/[1]
  • France, Southern: /te.ʁi.ˈtwa.ʁə/[1]

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

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