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enrichir

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Etymology and origin of the Old French word enrichir

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1100–1150 Cambridge Psalter More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origin
Frankish *rīkī
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French enrichir
English enrich
From the same root
English enrichment ← enrichir

Forms

enrichir (present participle enrichissant; past participle enrichi; first-person singular present enrichis)[1]

The form with -e- is dated about 1250 and appears in the Lorraine Image du Monde.[2][4] Northern texts write the verb with -k-, as in enrikirent.[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Old French en- + riche + -ir, “to make rich”.[1][6][2] The adjective riche is from Frankish *rīkī (“rich, powerful”), from Proto-Germanic *rīkijaz (“rich, powerful”),[1] and the FEW gives the Frankish word the sense “mighty”.[7]

Beside it Old French had the simple verb richir, recorded from the third quarter of the 12th century in England.[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are the Anglo-Norman psalters: the Cambridge Psalter of the first half of the 12th century has enrichis,[10][11] and the TLFi cites Psalm 64:9 of the Oxford Psalter, where the verb renders the Latin locuplētō (“to enrich”).[6][12] The AND dates its first citation to the first half of the 12th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Since riche first meant “powerful, of high rank”, the FEW gives the 12th-century verb the sense “to give someone power”; the sense of wealth grew with that of the adjective.[2][7] Tobler–Lommatzsch record it intransitive and reflexive, “to become rich”, and transitive, “to enrich”, with the past participle used as an adjective.[12] The AND adds the sense “to augment, heighten”.[3]

The Middle French texts of the DMF use it in the same ways;[13] Machaut, in 1377, says of Fortune L'un enrichist, L'autre apovrist “she makes one rich and the other poor”.[13] Godefroy has enrichier in 1478 for adorning a tabernacle with gold.[14] Modern French keeps enrichir.[6]

Timeline

  • 1100–1150 – enrichis in the Cambridge Psalter, the period of the AND's first citation.[10][3]
  • 1140–1160 – the verb in the Oxford Psalter, dated to the first half of the 12th century by the TLFi.[12][15][6]
  • c. 1174 – enrichiz in the Chronique des ducs de Normandie.[16]
  • 1175–1200 – enrichi in Garin le Loherain.[17]
  • c. 1248 – enrechir in the Lorraine Image du Monde.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) to enrich, make rich; early also to make powerful.[12][3][2]
  2. (transitive) to augment, heighten.[3]
  3. (intransitive, reflexive) to become rich.[12][3]
  4. (past participle) enriched, rich.[12][3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the verb enrichir, with the spellings enricheir and enricher, and dates its first citation to the first half of the 12th century.[3] Middle English enrichen, “to increase the wealth of; to adorn richly”, came from enrichier according to the MED,[18] and Etymonline traces the English verb enrich of the late 14th century to enrichir.[19]

Descendants

  • Middle French enrichir (→ French enrichir)[13][6]
  • Middle English enrichen (borrowed; → English enrich)[18][19]
  • riche
  • richir
  • richece

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch head the verb enrichir and give enrichier a short article of its own;[12][14] Godefroy too has both.[12][14] The AND and the DMF head it enrichir.[3][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16:713
  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. enrichir
  4. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. ImMondeOct3M
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e 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 Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16:712
  8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. richir
  9. ^ 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. 7:187
  10. ^ 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. PsCambrM
  11. ^ 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. PsCambrM
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:496
  13. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. enrichir
  14. ^ a b c 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. 3:220
  15. ^ 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. PsOxfM
  16. ^ Penn Parsed Corpus of Historical French, version 1.0, University of Pennsylvania & University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1174-BenDuc1b-bfm-r
  17. ^ Camps, Jean-Baptiste, et al., Geste: a lemmatised corpus of Old French chansons de geste, github (texts by DEAF siglum), p. GarLorrI
  18. ^ 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)
  19. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com

Related etymologies

  • male · also from Frankish
  • haste · also from Frankish
  • bloe · also from Frankish
  • troter · also from Frankish
Cite this entry

“Enrichir.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/enrichir. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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