acompaignier

Forms

acompaignier (present participle acompaignant; past participle acompaignié; first-person singular present acompaing)^[1]

• aconpaignier, acompagnier, acompaigner, acumpainer, acumpainner, acompaingner, acompangnier, acompeigner, accompaignier^[1][2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French a- + compaing (“companion”) + -ier.^[1][5][6] Gamillscheg compares the formation of acointier.^[5] Etymonline instead derives it from the prefix and the verb compaignier.^[7] The noun compaing is the nominative of compaignon, from Late Latin compāniō (“messmate”),^[1] which Wiktionary analyses as com- (“with”) and pānis (“bread”), first found in the Lex Salica and probably a calque of Frankish *gahlaibō.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The AND's first citation is from an Anglo-Norman text of the second quarter of the 12th century,^[2] and the Quatre Livres des Reis, written in England in the second half of the century, have acumpaigna.^[8] The TLFi and the DHLF date the word 1165, from Guillaume d'Angleterre, where it means to take someone as a companion: K'avoec aus nul n'en acompaignent "that they take none of them with them as companions".^[9][6]

Semantic evolution

In Chrétien de Troyes the verb means to take someone as a companion or associate, and reflexively to join someone's company;^[3] Cligès has the proverb Qui malvés sergent aconpaigne Ne puet faillir qu'il ne s'an plaigne "whoever takes a bad servant into his company cannot fail to regret it".^[3] From "take as a companion" it came to mean joining someone, especially on a journey; with things it meant, from the end of the 12th century, making one go together with another: les baisses choses sunt aconpaignieies as haltes "the low things are joined to the high ones".^[6][9] In law it meant, from 1239, to take someone as a partner in the possession of land or rights.^[9] The modern French verb is accompagner.^[9]

Timeline

• 1125–1150 – first citation in the AND.^[2]
• 1150–1199 – acumpaigna in the Quatre Livres des Reis.^[8]
• 1165 – "to take as a companion" in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[9][6]
• c. 1176 – aconpaigne in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès.^[3]
• end of the 12th century – said of things, "to join to".^[9]
• 1239 – legal sense "to take as a partner in a holding".^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to take (someone) as a companion or associate.^[3][10]
2. to give (someone) as a companion; to marry.^[10][2]
3. to make (someone) share in something; to join, add (to).^[3][2]
4. to keep company with, accompany.^[2]
5. (reflexive) to join someone's company; to band together.^[3][2]
6. (law) to take (someone) as a partner in a holding.^[9]
7. (Anglo-Norman) to have sexual intercourse with (a woman).^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the verb acompaigner, with spellings from acompaignier to acumpainer and acompeigner, and first cites it from the second quarter of the 12th century.^[2] Insular senses include frequenting someone, marrying, winning associates or converts, and banding together.^[2] Middle English took it as accompanien "to make (someone) a companion; to be in company with", which the MED derives from acompa(i)gnier;^[11] it is the English verb accompany, recorded from the early 15th century.^[7]

Descendants

• French accompagner^[1][9]
• Middle English accompanien (borrowed; → English accompany)^[11][7]

Related words

• compaignie
• acointier

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and the DÉCT head the verb acompagnier, Foerster aconpaignier, Godefroy acompaignier, the AND acompaigner and the DMF accompagner.^[3][2]

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 j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. acompaigner
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. acompagnier
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 Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 15
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. accompagner
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. RoisC
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
10. ^ a b Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. acompaignier
11. ^ a b 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)