constitucion

Forms

constitucion f (oblique plural constitucions)^[1]

• constitution, constitucioun, constituciun, constitucione^[2][3]

In the dated corpora the plural constitucions and the singular constitucion are far more frequent than constitution.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnstitūtiō (“arrangement, disposition; ordinance, decree”), a learned borrowing.^[1][4][5] The Latin noun is formed cōnstituō (“to set up, establish”) + -tiō;^[1][6] in Christian Latin “constitutio mundi” meant “the creation of the world”, a sense the French word also took.^[4] Gamillscheg dates the borrowing to the 12th century and glosses the Latin “institution, ordinance”.^[5] The FEW treats it under the Latin verb.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Roman du Mont-Saint-Michel, a Norman poem of the third quarter of the 12th century (1160–1170 for the TLFi, which names Guillaume de Saint-Pair as its author).^[8][4] There the form constitucïum is the solemn legal act by which a gift to the church is confirmed, “an establishing by law”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Benoît de Sainte-Maure soon uses the word for a rule or ordinance, noz leis, noz constitutions “our laws, our ordinances”.^[4][10] In the 13th century it names the institutions of a city on which officials swear in Brunetto Latini's Tresor, and a new royal ordinance in Beaumanoir.^[9] A translation of Beleth of 1287 has constitucion dou monde “the creation of the world”.^[4]

Middle French added “the way a thing is made up”, as in the constitucions de l'an, the seasons of the year with their qualities, and Oresme's constitucion du monde.^[11] The physical constitution of the body is recorded from 1546, and the sense “the text that fixes a country's form of government” from 1683, in a book on the Reformation in England.^[4]

Timeline

• 1150–1175 – constitucïum in the Roman du Mont-Saint-Michel.^[8][4][9]
• c. 1174 – “ordinance, rule” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie.^[4][12]
• second half of the 13th century – first Anglo-Norman record.^[2]
• 1276 – institucions et costitucions in a document of December 1276.^[10]
• 1287 – constitucion dou monde “the creation of the world”, in a manuscript of the early 14th century.^[4]
• 1546 – the constitution of the body.^[4]
• 1683 – the political constitution of a country.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. establishment, setting up, especially by a legal act.^[9][2][13]
2. an ordinance, decree, rule or statute.^[4][2]
3. (chiefly plural) the laws, customs and institutions of a state or city.^[9][2]
4. creation (of the world).^[4][10]
5. (Anglo-Norman) the purport or wording of an official document.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word constitucion, first cites it from the second half of the 13th century, and lists the spellings constitucione, constitucioun, constituciun and constitution; its senses run from “establishment” and “act of making laws” to “rule, law, statute”, “body of law or customs” and the wording of an official document.^[2] Middle English constitucioun, “law, regulation; body of rules”, recorded from the mid-14th century, comes from the French word and directly from Latin.^[14]

Descendants

• Middle French constitucion (→ French constitution)^[11][1]
• Middle English constitucioun (borrowed; → English constitution)^[14]

Related words

• constituer

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the word constitucïon and the AND constitucion, while Godefroy, the DMF and the FEW use modern constitution.^{[9][2][10][11][7]} It belongs above all to the language of law and government.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. constitucion
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. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 275
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cōnstitūtiō
7. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1084
8. ^ 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. ChronSMichelM
9. ^ a b c d e f g Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:746
10. ^ 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. 9:169
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. constitution
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. ^ 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. constitution
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com