traduire

Forms

traduire^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trādūcō (“to lead across, to transfer”), adapted after French verbs such as conduire and déduire.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from trāns (“across”) and dūcō (“to lead”).^[2][3][6] The sense “to translate” comes from the Latin of the humanists: according to the TLFi it was created about 1400 by the Italian Leonardo Bruni, who either deliberately or by misreading a passage of Aulus Gellius used the Latin verb for rendering into another language.^[2] The new sense spread in the second half of the 15th century.^[2][6] Rey thinks French took this sense from Italian tradurre or directly from Latin.^[3][7]

Cognate with Spanish traducir and Portuguese traduzir.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1480 as a legal term, in the phrase traduire en cause et en procès “to bring before the courts”, in a confirmation of the privileges of the inhabitants of Besançon.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In law the verb then took as its object the person summoned (1668, La Fontaine) and gave traduire quelqu'un en justice (1734); until the 19th century it also meant to transfer someone from one place, such as a prison, to another (1622).^[2][3][4]

The sense “to translate”, first recorded in 1520, gradually displaced the older translater and narrowed the verb to passing from one language to another;^[3][2] traduire un auteur appears in Ronsard in 1559.^[3][2] By extension it came to mean “to express, interpret” (1654, Guez de Balzac), a use that remained rare until the late 18th century,^[2][3] and “to make visible, to manifest” (1807, Mme de Staël).^[2][9] Machine à traduire dates from 1955.^[2]

Timeline

• 1480 – Recorded in the legal phrase traduire en cause et en procès.^[2][3]
• 1520 – First used of translating, by François Dassy.^[2][3]
• 1559 – Ronsard writes of translating an author.^[2][3]
• 1622 – Used for transferring a prisoner.^[2][3]
• 1654 – Guez de Balzac uses it for expressing a thought.^[2]
• 1668 – La Fontaine uses it of summoning before a judge.^[2][3]
• 1687 – Intraduisible is recorded, before traduisible (1725).^[3]
• 1734 – Traduire en justice appears.^[2][3]
• 1807 – Mme de Staël uses it for showing feelings.^[2][9]
• 1955 – Machine à traduire is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (law) To summon someone before a court: traduire quelqu'un en justice.^[10][2][1]
2. (law, obsolete) To transfer a prisoner from one place to another.^[2][7]
3. To translate from one language into another: traduire un poème de l'allemand.^[10][2][1]
4. To translate the works of an author: traduire un auteur.^[10][2]
5. To express, to render or interpret: traduire la pensée.^[2][3]
6. To make visible, to show; reflexive, to show itself (in something).^[2][9]

Word family

• surtraduire
• retraduire
• traduisible
• intraduisible

Related words

• traducteur
• traduction
• conduire
• Latin trādūcō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 u v w x y z 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 o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b 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. 13/2, 153b
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8831
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert