trope

Forms

trope m (plural tropes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tropus (“trope, figure of speech, also chant, melody”), from Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos, “turn, way, manner”).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek noun is derived from τρέπω (trépō, “to turn”); it meant a direction and, abstractly, a way of doing or behaving, and was applied in rhetoric to a manner of speaking and a figure of speech, and in music to a mode or melody.^[3][6][7]

It is related to tropique and tropisme.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Latin form tropus appears about 1375 in Raoul de Presles's translation of Augustine's City of God, for a figure of speech.^[2] The French form trope is first found in 1554, in Jean de Maumont's translation of the works of Justin Martyr.^[2][3][4] The GLLF also cites a form trop “melody” from Rashi's glosses at the end of the 11th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a term of rhetoric, more technical than figure.^[3] It was little known until Du Marsais's treatise on tropes (1729) spread it;^[3] Rey tells of a great lord who asked which tribe the Traité des tropes was about.^[3] By extension it came to mean any figure that turns a word or phrase from its proper sense.^[2][6]

Since 1842, in the plural, it has named the arguments of the Greek sceptics for the suspension of judgement, the tropes des pyrrhoniens.^[2][3][7] In 1852 it was taken up in the history of medieval music, after the Medieval Latin use of tropus (from the 9th century) for a paraphrase of liturgical chant by addition or substitution.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – Raoul de Presles uses the Latin form tropus in French.^[2]
• 1554 – Trope in Jean de Maumont's translation of Justin Martyr.^[2][3]
• 1729 – Du Marsais's treatise on tropes spreads the word.^[3]
• 1842 – Tropes des pyrrhoniens in the supplement to the Académie dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1852 – Coussemaker uses it of a paraphrased fragment of the Kyrie.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) A figure of speech by which a word or expression is turned from its proper sense, as in metaphor or metonymy.^[2][8][9]
2. (philosophy, in the plural) The arguments of the sceptics of ancient Greece for suspending judgement: les tropes des pyrrhoniens.^[7][3]
3. (music) In medieval music, a piece made by inserting extra words and notes into an existing liturgical chant.^[10][2]

Related words

• tropologie
• tropologique
• tropique
• tropisme
• Latin tropus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ 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, 324a
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)