clergie

Forms

clergie f (oblique plural clergies)^[1]

• clargie, cleregie, klergie, clersie^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French clerc + -ie, with its ⟨g⟩ taken from clergié.^[4][5] Gamillscheg derives it more exactly from clerge, a by-form of that noun.^[6] That noun is from Late Latin clēricus (“clergyman”), from Ancient Greek κληρικός (klērikós, “of the clergy”).^[1][7]

Wiktionary instead derives the word from Ecclesiastical Latin clēricātus (“clerical office”),^[1] but the FEW and the TLFi keep the two apart: the masculine noun, modern French clergé, is the word inherited from that Latin noun, while “clergie” was formed in French.^[8][4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The AND first cites the word in the first half of the 12th century.^[2] The TLFi's first record is Wace's Brut of 1155, where it means the learning proper to a clerk.^[4] Chrétien de Troyes uses it in that sense at the opening of Cligès: Qu'an Grece ot de chevalerie Le premier los et de clergie “that Greece had the first renown in chivalry and in learning”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Tobler–Lommatzsch divides the word into the clergy as a body and the learning of a churchman.^[11] Godefroy adds the profession of a clerk, a corporation of clerks or scholars, a registry and a kind of due,^[12] and Greimas dates the sense of a registry to an ordinance of 1319.^[13] In law it named the privilege of a clerk, as when Beaumanoir writes that a clerk who trades cannot free his goods par le privilege de sa clergie “by the privilege of his clergy”.^[14] The sense of a body of churchmen passed to clergié, modern clergé, and the TLFi records clergie “learning” as an old word from 1690.^[4]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – the earliest Anglo-Norman citation in the AND.^[2]
• 1155 – “learning” in Wace's Brut.^[4]
• c. 1176 – in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès.^[9][10]
• late 12th century – in the chanson de geste Floovant.^[15]
• c. 1200 – Middle English clergie.^[16]
• 1233–1266 – in the Anglo-Norman poem Un chivalier et sa dame et un clerk.^[17]
• 1319 – “registry”, in an ordinance.^[13]
• 1690 – listed as an old word by Furetière.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. the clergy, the body of churchmen; the clerical estate.^[2][11][3]
2. a corporation of clerks or scholars.^[3][13]
3. learning, scholarship, the knowledge of a clerk; the ability to read Latin.^[9][2][4]
4. (law) the privilege of a clerk, benefit of clergy.^[2][14]
5. a registry, a clerk's office.^[13][12]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word in the first half of the 12th century and lists the spellings cleregie, clergi, clergié and klergie; besides the clergy and learning it records the ability to read Latin, benefit of clergy, and the phrases for claiming and renouncing the privilege of clergy.^[2] Middle English borrowed it as clergie,^[18] the source of the English word clergy, which Etymonline traces to both clergié and clergie.^[16] Etymonline notes that benefit of clergy was first recognized in England in 1274.^[16]

Descendants

• Middle French clergie (→ French clergie)^[4]
• Middle English clergie (borrowed; → English clergy)^[18][16]

Related words

• clerc
• clergié

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the DÉCT and the AND all head the word clergie,^{[11][3][9][2]} and keep the masculine clergié “clergy”, from Latin clericatus, under a head of its own.^[19][20] The two are often confused in the texts: the AND gives clergié among the spellings of clergie.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. clergie
3. ^ 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. 2:151
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:775
6. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 251
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:774
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. clergie
10. ^ a b 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. CligesG
11. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:478
12. ^ a b Godefroy, Frédéric (1901), Lexique de l'ancien français, ed. J. Bonnard and A. Salmon, Paris / Leipzig: Welter, p. 1:87
13. ^ a b c d 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. clergie
14. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
15. ^ Camps, Jean-Baptiste, et al., Geste: a lemmatised corpus of Old French chansons de geste, github (texts by DEAF siglum), p. FloovG
16. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. ChevDameClercN
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:479
20. ^ 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. 2:152