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imperïal

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word imperïal

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1170 Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie More words from the 12th century
Borrowed from
Latin imperialis
Ultimate origin
Latin imperium
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin imperō
Latin imperium
French empire
Romanian imperiu
Spanish imperio
Latin imperiālis
Old French imperïal
From the same root
Latin apparō ← parō
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Latin imperābiliter ← imperō
Latin imperātor ← imperō
Latin imperātrīx ← imperō
Latin imperitō ← imperō
Latin imperiōsus ← imperium
English imperialism ← imperiālis

Forms

imperïal (also emperïal)[1][2]

The nominative singular emperiaus and imperïaus are early forms.[6][7] Froissart has impereal.[8]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin imperiālis (“of the emperor”),[9][7][10] from imperium (“command; empire”).[7][11] The FEW and the DEAF give the same etymon.[8][12] Körting gives Italian imperiale beside the French word.[13]

Old French used both this learned spelling and emperial, which Bloch and Wartburg record beside it;[9][4][3] Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the two separately and the DÉCT and the AND take them as one word.[9][4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, about 1170 by the DEAF bibliography and about 1165 by the TLFi, where emperïaus qualifies a richly decorated cloth;[14][6] Wiktionnaire quotes Feutre de paile emperial “a cushion of imperial silk” from it.[15]

Semantic evolution

Chrétien de Troyes has both senses: the palace of an emperor in Cligès, Jusqu'au palés emperial “as far as the imperial palace”, about 1176, and in Yvain a lady D'un drap emperial vestue “dressed in an imperial cloth”.[4][6] Tobler–Lommatzsch extends the adjective to princely, splendid and mighty, and records the noun for a warrior of the emperor, for an emperor or prince and for a costly cloth.[16] The plural emperiaux for the emperor's men is in Guillaume de Palerme, in the first half of the 13th century.[6]

In Middle French emperial still meant imperial or princely,[17] while impérial became the French form, recorded since the 13th century; the FEW also notes a noun “prince”, recorded once in the 13th century.[8] From 1552 les impériaux were the troops of the German emperor.[6][7]

Timeline

  • c. 1170 – emperïaus of a rich cloth in the Roman de Troie (about 1165 by the TLFi).[14][6]
  • 1150–1175 – the first Anglo-Norman citation in the AND.[3]
  • c. 1170 – in the Anglo-Norman Roman de Horn.[12][18]
  • c. 1176 – palés emperial in Chrétien's Cligès.[6][4]
  • c. 1201 – the noun for a luxurious cloth in L'Escoufle.[6][1]
  • 1201–1250 – emperiaux, the emperor's men, in Guillaume de Palerme.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. of an emperor or an empire, imperial.[4][3][1]
  2. worthy of an emperor, princely, splendid; said of rich cloth.[4][16][6]
  3. mighty, excellent.[16]
  4. (Anglo-Norman) Roman, of the Roman empire.[3]

Noun

  1. a warrior of the emperor;[16][6] (plural) the emperor's men.[16][6]
  2. an emperor, prince, ruler.[16][3]
  3. a costly cloth.[16][6]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word emperial, with the spellings emperal, enperial, imperial, imperiall and imperiel, and first cites it from the third quarter of the 12th century.[3] Besides imperial and princely it records the senses Roman, splendid, and the noun lord or ruler, and the medical karthaticum imperiale, a purge.[3] The MED derives the Middle English adjective imperial from both Old French spellings and the Latin adjective.[19]

Word family

  • imperïalment

Descendants

  • Middle French emperial (→ French impérial)[17][6]
  • Middle English imperial (borrowed; → English imperial)[19][20]
  • empire

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch has two articles, emperïal and imperïal,[2][1] the DÉCT heads the word emperïal, the AND emperial and the DMF empérial and impérial.[4][3] The adjective empireal “of the empyrean heaven”, which shares the spelling emperial in Middle French, has a separate source in Latin empyrius.[21][22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1352
  2. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:101
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. emperial
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. emperïal
  5. ^ Foerster, Wendelin; Breuer, Hermann (1914), Kristian von Troyes: Wörterbuch zu seinen sämtlichen Werken, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 43
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. impérial
  8. ^ a b c Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4:586
  9. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 372
  10. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 567
  11. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ a b 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. emperial
  13. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh, p. 4770
  14. ^ 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. BenTroieC
  15. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
  16. ^ a b c d e f g Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:102
  17. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. empérial
  18. ^ 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. HornP
  19. ^ a b 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)
  20. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  21. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. empyréal
  22. ^ 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. 3:62

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Imperïal.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/imper%C3%AFal. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

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