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deport

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word deport

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1160 Roman d'Eneas More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Latin portō

Forms

deport m (oblique plural deporz, deportz; nominative singular deporz, deportz)[1]

The AND heads the word desport, with the prefix des-;[2][4] English took the insular disport.[2][4]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Old French deporter (“to amuse, divert”),[5][6] and the verb continues Latin dēportō (“to carry away, convey”), formed from dē- and portō (“to carry”).[7][8] Wiktionary takes the verb for a learned borrowing from Latin,[1] the DHLF for an inherited word.[8] The DHLF argues that the Latin verb must also have meant "to divert" in late use, since Italian diportarsi, Spanish deportarse and Old Occitan deportar share that sense.[8]

Gamillscheg explains the sense: the reflexive verb first meant "to desist from something", like the Latin "to carry away", then "to let oneself go", above all beside reflexive deduire "to enjoy oneself".[6] Etymonline describes the form with des- as carrying the mind away from serious matters.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is the Roman d'Eneas, about 1160, in the sense of pleasure or entertainment.[9][10] The Anglo-Norman Jeu d'Adam, of the second half of the 12th century, also has deport,[11] and the AND's first citation dates from 1150–70.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Chrétien de Troyes the word means joy and pleasure, sexual pleasure among them: C'est mes deduiz, c'est mes deporz, C'est mes solaz et mes conforz "this is my delight, my pleasure, my solace and my comfort", in Erec et Enide.[12] Other senses followed the verb's meanings of sparing and holding back: delay, renunciation and leniency, as in sans deport "without mercy".[13][6] The TLFi records depors "delay" in the first third of the 13th century.[9]

Later the word became a legal term: a term of canon law in 1405 and, in the custom of Anjou in 1508, a lord's right to the revenue of a fief in the year after its holder's death.[9] The senses of pleasure and amusement went out of use with those of the verb in the 17th century.[8]

Timeline

  • 1150–1170 – the AND's first citation.[2]
  • c. 1160 – "pleasure, entertainment" in the Roman d'Eneas.[9]
  • 1146–1199 – deport in the Jeu d'Adam.[11]
  • c. 1170 – deporz in Erec et Enide.[12][14]
  • 1200–1233 – depors "delay" in Durmart le Galois.[9]
  • 1405 – a term of canon law.[9]
  • 1508 – a feudal right to a fief's revenue, in the custom of Anjou.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. pleasure, delight, joy; amusement, entertainment.[12][2]
  2. sexual pleasure.[12]
  3. comfort, relief, solace.[2]
  4. delay, respite.[15][9]
  5. renunciation; exemption, dispensation; a financial rebate.[15][2]
  6. consideration, leniency; in sans deport: without mercy.[16][2][6]
  7. (law) the provisional administration or revenue of a benefice or fief.[6][9]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word desport, first cites it from 1150–70, and lists the spellings deport, disport and desporte.[2] Its insular senses run from delight, entertainment and comfort to respite, exemption and a financial rebate, and its phrases mean "at will", "as a favour", "without favouritism" and "to be lenient towards".[2] Middle English took disport "amusement, recreation" from Anglo-Norman about 1300, and its shortening sporte in the early 15th century gave English sport.[4]

Descendants

  • Middle French deport (→ French déport)[17][9]
  • Middle English disport (borrowed; → English disport, English sport)[4]
  • Catalan deport (borrowed)[1]
  • Portuguese desporto (borrowed)[1]
  • Spanish deporto (borrowed)[1]
  • deporter

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the DÉCT head the word deport, the AND desport, and the DMF and the TLFi déport.[12][2] The modern stock-exchange term French déport has a separate source: Bloch and Wartburg derive it from French report in the mid-19th century.[18]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. desport
  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. deport
  4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b c d e Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 334
  7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dēportō
  8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. déporter
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
  10. ^ Penn Parsed Corpus of Historical French, version 1.0, University of Pennsylvania & University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1155-eneas1-bfm-r
  11. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. AdamN
  12. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. deport
  13. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1420
  14. ^ 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
  15. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1421
  16. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 2:1422
  17. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. deport
  18. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 227
Cite this entry

“Deport.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/deport. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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