congregacion

Forms

congregacion f (oblique plural congregacions)^[1]

• congregation, congregatiun, cungregatiun, congregaciun, congregacioun, congregacium, congregatium^[2][3][4]

The forms in -iun and -ioun are Anglo-Norman.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin congregātiō (“assembly, union”).^[1][5][6][7] The Latin noun is formed from congregō (“to flock together”),^[1][8] itself made of con- and gregō (“to gather into a flock”), from grex (“flock, herd”).^[9] The FEW notes that the noun was borrowed long before the verb, which French took only in the 15th century.^[6]

In Medieval Latin the noun also meant a religious, especially a monastic, community.^[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are the Anglo-Norman psalters.^[4][5] The Cambridge Psalter, of the first half of the 12th century, has congregatiun and cungregatiun;^[4][11] in Psalm 61:8 of the Oxford Psalter, which the TLFi dates about 1120 and the DEAF to the middle of the century, the word renders Latin omnis congregatio populi, “all the assembly of the people”.^[5][12][13] The sense is a gathering or assembly.^[5][14]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word named any gathering, and Tobler–Lommatzsch stress that it was not only religious; it was used of the people, of the monks of a community such as Saint Brendan's, and of a crowd of angels.^[13][15] It could also be a collection of things: a Bible translation speaks of a congregation of silver, iron, tin and lead.^[15] In Middle French Oresme and Christine de Pizan used it for the coming together of small parts into a body, and Wauquelin for a constellation.^[16]

The general sense died out in the 17th century, except in the biblical congrégation des eaux.^[9] After the Counter-Reformation the word came to mean a religious community (before 1622), a commission of cardinals (before 1630) and a lay confraternity (1680), the senses of modern French congrégation.^[9][6][5]

Timeline

• 1100–1150 – congregatiun in the Anglo-Norman Cambridge Psalter, the period of the AND's first citation.^[4][3]
• c. 1120 – congregatiun in the Oxford Psalter, by the TLFi's dating; the DEAF dates the text to the middle of the century.^[5][12]
• 1150–1200 – congregations in an Anglo-Norman text of the second half of the 12th century, the DEAF's earliest dated record.^[2][17]
• before 1622 – “religious community”, in François de Sales.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. a gathering, assembly of people.^[13][3][1]
2. a monastic community.^[3][13]
3. a collection, accumulation of things.^[15][2]
4. (Anglo-Norman) a merchant company; a herd of animals.^[3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word congregation, dates its first citation to the first half of the 12th century, and lists the spellings congregacion, congregacioun, congregaciun and congregatiun.^[3] Its insular senses include a merchant company and a herd of animals.^[3] Middle English took congregacioun from Latin and French,^[18] in the late 14th century, whence the English word congregation.^[19]

Descendants

• French congrégation^[1]
• Middle English congregacioun (borrowed; → English congregation)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch head the word congregacïon, Godefroy congregacion, and the AND and the DMF congregation.^{[13][15][3][16]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. congregacion
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. congregation
4. ^ a b c d 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. PsCambrM
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1050
7. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 272
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. congregātiō
9. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. congrégation
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. congregatio
11. ^ 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. PsCambrM
12. ^ 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. PsOxfM
13. ^ a b c d e Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:692
14. ^ 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. congregation
15. ^ 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. 2:238
16. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. congregation
17. ^ Penn Parsed Corpus of Historical French, version 1.0, University of Pennsylvania & University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1175-MirNDOrl-bfm-r
18. ^ 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. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com