aucion

Forms

aucion f (oblique plural aucions)^[1]

• accion, acciun, accioun, action, actioun, auction^[1][2][3][4]

aucion and auction are the spellings of Gautier de Coinci and of the Livre de Jostice et de Plet.^[3][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin āctiō (“a doing; a lawsuit”),^[1][6][7] a learned word,^[8] formed in Latin on agō (“to do, drive”) with the suffix -tiō.^[9] Its legal sense goes back to Latin, where the word already meant a lawsuit,^[6][10] and the phrase for "thanksgiving" copies Latin grātiārum āctiō.^[6] Wiktionary describes the Middle French spelling action as reshaped after the Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Anglo-Norman Cambridge Psalter of the first half of the 12th century, with acciun in accion de graces "thanksgiving".^[11][3][7]

Semantic evolution

In the general sense "deed, conduct" the FEW dates the word from about 1220, in Gautier de Coinci,^[7][3] and Bloch and Wartburg from 1250.^[6] In law it was a suit and the right to bring one, in Beaumanoir's customs of 1283 and in the Livre de Jostice et de Plet.^[6][3][5] Middle French action added philosophical and moral uses, as in Oresme,^[12] and modern French action continues it.^[1]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – acciun in the Cambridge Psalter.^[11][13]
• 1100–1150 – the first Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• 1140–1160 – in Sanson de Nantuil's Anglo-Norman Proverbes de Salemon.^[14][15]
• c. 1220 – "deed", in Gautier de Coinci.^[7]
• 1283 – the legal sense in Beaumanoir.^[6][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. an action, deed; conduct.^[3][7]
2. accion de graces: thanksgiving.^[3][2]
3. (law) an action, lawsuit.^[3][2][5]
4. (law) the right to bring an action.^[3][2]
5. (law) the matter in dispute.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word accion, first cites it from the first half of the 12th century, and lists accioun, acciun, action, actione and actioun.^[2] In England it was above all a word of the law courts: a lawsuit, the right to sue, personal and real actions, a matter "in litigation, pending" and phrases for starting a suit, beside "thanksgiving" and the onset of an illness.^[2] The MED derives Middle English accioun from Anglo-French accioun and Latin actiōnem,^[16] and Etymonline dates it to the mid-14th century, first as "cause or grounds for a lawsuit"; it is the source of English action.^[17]

Descendants

• Middle French action (→ French action)^[1]
• Middle English accioun (borrowed; → English action, Scots action)^[1]
• Norman actioun^[1]
• Poitevin-Saintongeais acciun^[1]
• Walloon accion^[1]

Usage notes

The dictionaries head the word differently: Wiktionary aucion, Tobler–Lommatzsch and the AND accion,^[3][2] and Godefroy, the DEAF and the DMF action.^[5][14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. accion
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:72
4. ^ FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
5. ^ a b c d Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 8:31
6. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 48
7. ^ a b c d e Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24:114
8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh, p. 139
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 19
11. ^ a b Stein, Achim; Kunstmann, Pierre; Gleßgen, Martin-D., eds., Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam, version 4 (lemmatised corpus of Old French texts, after A. Dees), Universität Stuttgart, github.com/michaniets/NCA (texts by DEAF siglum), p. PsCambrM
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. action
13. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. PsCambrM
14. ^ a b Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. action
15. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. ProvSalSanI
16. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com