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conduit

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word conduit

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1100–1125 Voyage de saint Brendan More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origin
Latin dūcō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French conduit
English conduit
From the same root
English conduct ← conduit

Forms

conduit m (nominative singular conduiz)[1]

Chrétien de Troyes writes conduit, nominative conduiz, and the Voyage de saint Brendan has the nominative cunduz.[1][4]

Etymology

Used as a noun, it is the past participle from Old French conduire (“to lead”), as the TLFi explains it, comparing a Medieval Latin use of 1086 for a water pipe.[5] The verb continues Latin condūcō (“to lead or bring together”), formed from con- and dūcō (“to lead”).[6][7]

Meyer-Lübke traces the noun instead to conductum (“pipe; supply”), with Italian condotto (“conduit, channel”), Old Occitan conduch and Spanish conducho (“provisions”) as its Romance cognates.[8] Gamillscheg gives conductus (“a drawing together; a leading”) first and the formation from the verb as the alternative.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the nominative cunduz in the Anglo-Norman Voyage de saint Brendan, of the first quarter of the 12th century;[4] Greimas dates the text 1112.[9] In Chrétien de Troyes the word mostly means escort and protection on the way: in Erec et Enide a man flees sanz conpaignie et sanz conduit "without company and without escort".[1]

Semantic evolution

From escort the word passed to the protection a lord gives, the phrase prendre aucun en conduit "to take someone under one's protection", and to a guarantee.[1] A safe-conduct is already a conduit in the Couronnement de Louis.[9] The sense of a channel for water appears in Chrétien's Cligès, where hot water vient par conduit desoz terre "comes through a conduit under the ground", and in his Perceval the word names the bed of a river.[1][5] Other senses grew from the idea of supplying someone on the way: provisions for the road, food and a meal, charges and expenses, and a household.[9][10]

In Middle French the word still meant the act of leading and escort as well as a pipe;[11] the sense "escort" lives on in the compound French sauf-conduit, while modern French conduit means a pipe or duct.[5] The feminine counterpart conduite "leading, conduct" is recorded from the 13th century.[7]

Timeline

  • 1100–1125 – cunduz in the Voyage de saint Brendan (1112 by Greimas's dating).[4][9]
  • 1121–1125 – the AND's first citation.[2]
  • 1133–1166 – a safe-conduct in the Couronnement de Louis.[9][10]
  • c. 1170 – escort and protection in Erec et Enide.[1][12]
  • c. 1176 – a water conduit in Cligès (about 1175 by the TLFi).[1][5]
  • 1218–1225 – a musical piece, in Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre Dame.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. escort, guidance; protection given on the way.[1][2]
  2. a safe-conduct, also the letter granting one.[2][9]
  3. a guarantee, in prendre aucune chose en conduit "to guarantee something".[1]
  4. a conduit, pipe or drain for water; the bed of a river.[1][2]
  5. provisions for the road; food, a meal.[9][10]
  6. charge, responsibility; expenses.[9][2]
  7. a household.[2][9]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word conduit, first cites it from 1121–25, and lists spellings from condet and cundit to counduit.[2] Its insular senses run from guidance, escort, protection and safe-conduct to drains, gutters, pipes and passages, and include the London Conduit in Cheapside.[2] Middle English took the word about 1300 as conduyt, first for escort and guidance; it named a water pipe from the late 14th century, and the old sense survives in its doublet conduct.[13]

Descendants

  • Middle French conduit (→ French conduit)[11][5]
  • Middle English conduit (borrowed; → English conduit)[13]
  • conduire

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF all head the word conduit.[1] Godefroy gives the musical piece and the provisions their own articles,[14][15] and the TLFi takes the musical sense from Medieval Latin conductus rather than from the verb.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. conduit
  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. conduit
  3. ^ ATILF (2017), LGeRM: lexique morphologique du moyen français, version 2.0.0, Nancy: ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, ORTOLANG (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 FR), p. s.v. conduit
  4. ^ a b c Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. BrendanS
  5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  7. ^ a b c Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 271
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2128
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. conduit
  10. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:667
  11. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. conduit
  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. ErecF
  13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ 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. 2:229
  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. 2:230
Cite this entry

“Conduit.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/conduit. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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