consumer

Forms

consumer v. tr.^[1][2]

• cusumer^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cōnsūmō (“to use up, destroy”).^[3][4][5] The DHLF analyses the Latin verb as com- and sūmō (“to take for oneself”), a contraction of an older form built on emō (“to take, buy”), so that it meant “to take entirely”.^[6] The FEW glosses the Latin verb “to employ, use up” and records beside the French word an Old French consumir, found only in biblical texts of the 12th and 13th centuries, and Old Occitan consumir.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Li ver del Juise, a sermon on the Last Judgement from the region of Liège, of the second quarter of the 12th century: Mes cors fut consumeiz “my body was consumed”.^[3][1][8]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb meant to destroy or annihilate,^[2] to devour,^[1] and to wear away a person's strength, as with grief or passion.^[7] In Middle French it was used of fire and heat,^[9] of wasting time from 1448^[3] and of using up money and food in the 15th and 16th centuries.^[7][3]

In the 16th and 17th centuries it was also used for “to accomplish”, so that it overlapped with French consommer until the second half of the 18th century.^[6][3] Modern French consumer has narrowed to destruction, above all by fire, a sense dated 1546.^[6]

Timeline

• 1125–1150 – consumeiz in Li ver del Juise.^[1][8][3]
• c. 1200 – consumez in the Dialogus animae conquerentis.^[10][11]
• 1250–1300 – cusumer in the Ysopet de Lyon.^[2][12]
• 1448 – consumer son temps “to spend one's time”.^[3]
• 1538 – “to use up by consumption”.^[3]
• 1546 – “to destroy by fire”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. to destroy, annihilate.^[2][9]
2. to devour, consume.^[1]
3. to wear away, torment (a person, with grief or passion).^[7]
4. (Anglo-Norman) to use up;^[13] (intransitive) to pine away.^[13]

Anglo-Norman

The AND has the word under consummer, together with the verb that became French consommer, first cited from the first half of the 12th century, with senses from “to consume, destroy” and “to use up” to “to pine away”.^[13] Etymonline derives English consume, of the late 14th century, from the Old French verb and directly from Latin.^[14]

Word family

• consumement

Descendants

• Middle French consumer (→ French consumer)^[9][3]
• English consume (borrowed)^[14]

Related words

• consomer

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DEAF and the DMF head the word consumer,^[1][2][9] while the AND lists it under consummer.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:750
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. consumer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 193
5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 275
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. consumer
7. ^ a b c d Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2:1095
8. ^ 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. JuiseR
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. consumer
10. ^ 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. 9:171
11. ^ Penn Parsed Corpus of Historical French, version 1.0, University of Pennsylvania & University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1200-DialAme-bfm-p
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. YsLyonF
13. ^ a b c d Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. consummer
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com