avertir

Forms

avertir (present participle avertissant; past participle averti; first-person singular present avertis)^[1]

• advertir, advertyr, avertyr^[1][2]

The spelling with ⟨d⟩ is by far the commoner one in the Middle French texts.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *advertiō, from Latin advertō (“to turn towards; to turn the mind to”) with a change of conjugation.^[1][3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed from ad- and vertō (“to turn”).^[6] The DHLF calls the French verb a borrowing from that Vulgar Latin form.^[7] Bloch and Wartburg note that Italian avvertire and the remade Spanish advertir continue the same word.^[3]

Greimas derives it from āvertō (“to turn away”),^[8] and the FEW gives the sense “to turn away” of the Old and Middle French verb to that Latin verb in a separate article.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The FEW's earliest record is the reflexive soi avertir “to notice, become aware” in Wace,^[5] and the AND's first citation dates from 1155.^[10] The TLFi quotes the same sense from Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy: Tant que li norriçons s'avert, Conoist et veit tot en apert Que sis chers damiseaus est pris “until the foster-father becomes aware, knows and sees quite openly that his dear young lord is taken”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

After the reflexive “to notice”, the verb meant “to pay attention to” (about 1180) and “to turn someone's attention towards” (about 1250); the FEW also records “to consider, reflect” in the 13th and 14th centuries and “to come to one's senses” about 1200.^[7][5] Beside these ran the sense “to turn, turn away”, recorded from the end of the 12th century in the Roman d'Alexandre.^[11][9] The modern sense “to inform, warn” is recorded from Commynes at the end of the 15th century, and the word continues as French avertir.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1155 – the earliest citation in the AND, and Wace's soi avertir “to notice”.^[10][5]
• c. 1174 – s'avert “becomes aware” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy.^[11][12]
• c. 1180 – “to pay attention to”.^[7][5]
• late 12th century – “to turn, turn away” in the Roman d'Alexandre.^[11]
• c. 1250 – “to turn someone's attention to, inform” in Auberi le Bourgoing.^[11]
• late 15th century – “to inform, warn” in Commynes.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) to notice, become aware, realise.^[10][5]
2. to pay attention to, be mindful of; to consider.^[10][5]
3. to notify, advise, inform.^[10][11]
4. to turn; to turn away, divert.^[8][9]
5. (past participle) shrewd, well-informed.^[10]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites avertir from 1155 and records the senses “to notify, advise”, “to recognise, perceive”, “to be on the alert” and, for the past participle, “sensible, shrewd” and “knowledgeable”.^[10] Middle English took its extended stem as advertisen, the source of the English word advertise, first “to take notice of”.^[13][14]

Descendants

• Middle French advertir (→ French avertir)^[15][11]
• Norman avèrti^[1]
• Middle English advertisen (borrowed; → English advertise)^[13][14]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch has a second head avertir “to make come true”, which it relates to verté “truth”; that verb has a separate source.^[16] The verb studied here is TL's avertir 2.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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
3. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 88
4. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 73
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24:199
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. advertō
7. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. avertir
8. ^ 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. avertir
9. ^ a b c Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25:1221
10. ^ a b c d e f g Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. avertir
11. ^ a b c d e f g 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
12. ^ 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. BenDucF
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. avertir
16. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:730
17. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:731