entendre

Forms

entendre (present participle entendant; past participle entendu; first-person singular present entent)^[1]

• antandre, antendre, entandre, intendre, entender^[2][3]

Chrétien de Troyes writes antandre, antendre, entandre and entendre, with the present antant and the past participle antandu;^[2] the AND adds the insular entender and intendre.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin intendō (“to stretch out; to direct towards”).^[1][4][5][6] The Latin verb is formed from in- and tendō (“to stretch”).^[7][8] Classical Latin used it for directing the eyes, the mind or one's attention towards something, and Christian Latin also for "to pay attention to, understand, want, listen to, hear".^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Vie de saint Alexis, which the DEAF dates to about 1090 and the TLFi to about 1050.^[10][9] There, in the form antendit, it already means "to perceive by hearing".^[9][11]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb meant above all "to give heed to, attend to", with entendre a from the Roland onwards, and "to understand", also in the Roland.^[9][4][8] The sense "to hear" was rare, because oïr was the usual verb for it.^[8][6] The sense "to intend" is recorded about 1121 in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[9][8] Greimas also lists "to strive", "to wait", "to inquire, study" and "to hope".^[12] The FEW records the physical sense "to stretch a bow" in the Oxford Psalter.^[4]

Gamillscheg says that the verb replaced oïr.^[5] Bloch and Wartburg date that change from the 16th century, after which "to understand" became archaic and French comprendre took it over.^[6] The modern word is French entendre.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1090 – antendit "heard" in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the TLFi's dating).^[10][11][9]
• c. 1100 – "to heed" and "to understand" in the Chanson de Roland.^[9][13][14]
• 1100–1125 – in the first Anglo-Norman text the AND cites.^[3]
• c. 1121 – "to intend" in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[9]
• c. 1170 – in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[2][15]
• 1370 – "to mean" in Oresme's Ethiques.^[9]
• 1549 – reflexive "to come to an agreement".^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. to hear.^[2][3]
2. to listen to; to heed, pay attention to (entendre a).^[2][9][3]
3. to understand, grasp the meaning of.^[9][3]
4. to intend, have in mind; to strive for.^[9][12][3]
5. to aim a bow.^[3][4]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites entendre from the first quarter of the 12th century and lists the insular spellings entender and intendre.^[3] Beside the general senses it records legal uses, "to give a legal hearing to" and "to rule, make a ruling".^[3] Middle English borrowed it as entenden, the source of the English word intend.^[1][16]

Descendants

• Middle French entendre (→ French entendre)^[1]
• Middle English entenden (borrowed; → English intend)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF all head the word entendre.^{[17][2][3][18]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. entendre
3. ^ 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. entendre
4. ^ a b c d Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4:740
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 399
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 265
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. intendo
8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. entendre
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 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. entendre
11. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. AlexisZ
12. ^ 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. entendre
13. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. RolMoign
14. ^ 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. RolS
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. ErecF
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:572
18. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. entendre