Etymologically
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thème

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Pronunciation

Forms

thème m (plural thèmes)[1] Tesme (about 1240), still recorded in 16th-century dictionaries, theme in Jean de Meun (1269–1278); thieume (1372); thème in the Académie from 1740.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing from Latin thema (“subject, proposition; horoscope”), a rhetorical term,[2][3][4][5] from Ancient Greek θέμα (théma, “what is placed; subject of a speech”), from τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put, place”) (see thèse).[3][2] The Greek word also named a deposit of money, the root of a word and the position of the stars at a birth.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A life of Saint Francis (about 1240) has tesme for the subject or proposition developed in a speech or work;[2][3] Jean de Meun uses theme in the Roman de la Rose.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In 1372 the thème was the Bible text quoted at the start of a sermon and commented on, competing with texte.[2][3] In 1580 Montaigne uses it for a schoolboy's composition on a set subject, whence fort en thème (1852);[2][3] Furetière (1690) has it for any passage given for translation, and the Académie (1718) for translation into a foreign language, as opposed to version.[2][3]

Grammarians used it for the first person of a Greek verb (1655), then for the stem of a word (1765, 1842).[2][3] Astrologers took it up again in thème céleste (1690), now thème astral.[2][3] In music it named a melodic subject (théma, 1807, thème, Stendhal, 1814), and in the 20th century it became a term of military tactics (1935), literary criticism and linguistics (as opposed to propos, 1961).[7][2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1240 – Tesme “subject”.[2]
  • 1269–1278 – Theme in Jean de Meun.[2]
  • 1372 – The text of a sermon.[2]
  • 1580 – A school composition, in Montaigne.[2]
  • 1655 – A grammatical term, in Lancelot.[2]
  • 1690 – Thème céleste; a translation exercise, in Furetière.[2]
  • 1718 – Translation into a foreign language.[2]
  • 1814 – A musical theme, in Stendhal.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A theme, subject, topic: le thème d'un roman, un thème de réflexion.[8][1]
  2. (music) A theme, subject.[1][9]
  3. A translation into a foreign language (as opposed to version): thème latin, fort en thème: swot.[1][9]
  4. (grammar) A stem.[1][3]
  5. (linguistics) The theme (as opposed to the rheme).[1][2]
  6. (astrology) Thème astral: a birth chart.[1][3]

Word family

  • thématique
  • thèse
  • Ancient Greek θέμα (théma)
  • English theme

Usage notes

A second thème (Fontenelle, 1726), from Byzantine Greek thema, is the term of history for a military and administrative district of the Byzantine Empire.[3][10][9]

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 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
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/1, 303a
  6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert