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Etymology and origin of the Old French word certain

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100 Chanson de Roland More words from the 11th century
Inherited from
Latin *certanus
Ultimate origin
Latin cernō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French certain
English certain
From the same root
English certainly ← certain
English uncertain ← certain

Forms

certain (feminine certaine, certaines)[1]

The northern spelling chertain has ch for c.[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *certānus (“certain, sure”),[1][5][6][7] formed on Latin certus (“fixed, sure”).[6][8] Gamillscheg takes the new adjective to have been said at first only of living beings, while certus survived in cert, said only of things;[5] the older adjective did not reach the 16th century.[6] certus was originally the past participle of cernō (“to distinguish, decide”),[9][8] and de Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *krito- (“sifted”).[9] The same Latin formation gave Old Italian and Old Spanish certano, Old Occitan certan and Portuguese certano.[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The automatically lemmatised Roland of about 1100 has the form certeine,[10] and the AND's first insular record is of about 1141.[2] The DHLF dates certan to about 1160 and certain to about 1200, said first of a person, "sure, convinced".[8]

Semantic evolution

Chrétien de Troyes uses the adjective of things, "sure, established", as in novele certainne et veraie "sure and true news", and of persons, certain d'aucune chose "sure of something".[11] Tobler–Lommatzsch add "reliable, genuine" and the phrases de certain, en certain and por certain "for certain".[12] The adverb certainement is recorded from about 1165.[8]

Placed before a person's name, from 1283, it marked a feigned ignorance, and before other nouns an indefinite quantity, the origin of the modern indefinite use of French certain.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – certeine in the Chanson de Roland.[10][13]
  • c. 1141 – the first Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.[2]
  • c. 1160 – the form certan.[8]
  • c. 1170 – certain in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.[11]
  • c. 1200 – the form certain, and the sense "undeniable" of things.[8]
  • 1283 – before a person's name, "a certain".[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. sure, assured, established (of a thing).[11][2]
  2. sure, convinced (of a person).[11][12]
  3. reliable, genuine.[14][2]
  4. fixed, specified, particular.[2]
  5. resolute; sincere.[15]
  6. de certain, por certain: for certain, without doubt.[12]

Noun

  1. certainty, sure news, the truth.[12][2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word certein, first cites it from about 1141, and gives the spellings certan, certeign, certen, sertain and serten.[2] Insular legal and administrative texts used it as a noun for a fixed sum or a fixed service, and for firm ground as opposed to water.[2] English certain, first "determined, fixed" about 1300, comes from it.[16]

Word family

  • certainement

Descendants

  • cert

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT and the DMF head the word certain, the AND certein.[14][11][2][17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. certein
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ Van Daele, Hilaire, Petit dictionnaire de l'ancien français, Paris: Garnier, p. 74
  5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 219
  6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 157
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1839
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. certain
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. certus
  10. ^ 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. RolS
  11. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. certain
  12. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:132
  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. RolS
  14. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:131
  15. ^ 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. 2:23
  16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  17. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. certain

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Certain.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/certain. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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