ferme

Forms

ferme f (oblique plural fermes)^[1]

• farme, feerme, firme^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Old French fermer (“to fix, make firm”),^[4][5][6] from the Old French sense "to establish firmly, settle".^[4] The verb continues Latin firmō (“to make firm”), from firmus (“firm”),^[7][8] the source of the adjective ferm.^[9] The FEW and the REW treat the noun for a lease among the derivatives of the verb.^[6][8]

The DHLF notes Medieval Latin firma (“lease”) in records from England from 1100.^[4] Wiktionary derives the Old French noun from that Medieval Latin word and further from Old English feorm (“provisions, rent”),^[1] but the MED keeps the Middle English word for a feast or provisions, from the Old English one, apart from the word for a lease, which it takes from the Old French noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DHLF dates the noun to about 1160, as a term of law for an agreement by which land is let.^[4] The FEW records Picard ferme "rent of a farm" in the 12th and 13th centuries,^[6] and Greimas cites the Guillaume de Dole of 1213.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old French ferme was the lease, the land held under it and the fixed rent paid for it;^[5][6] rente a ferme was a rent at a fixed rate.^[5][6] The FEW dates the sense "estate let to a tenant" from the 13th century, the DHLF from 1539.^[6][4] A ferme could also be an enclosed place, a cage for a hawk, and in 15th-century Douai a chest for records.^[11][12][3]

Under the Ancien Régime the ferme of the king's indirect taxes became an institution, the ferme générale, which ended with the Revolution.^[6][4] Today French ferme is above all a farmhouse and its farm.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – the first record, by the DHLF's dating.^[4]
• 1100s–1200s – Picard ferme "rent of a farm".^[6]
• 1207 – the derivative fermier, a holder of a lease.^[4]
• 1213 – ferme in the Guillaume de Dole.^[5]
• 1200–1250 – the first Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• 1539 – a rural estate let to a tenant, by the DHLF's dating.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. a lease, an agreement letting land for a fixed rent.^[2][13]
2. the land or property let, a farm.^[2][5]
3. the fixed rent paid, also a royal rent or tax.^[2][5]
4. a cage for a hawk.^[11][2]
5. a kind of gratuity.^[5]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the noun from the first half of the 13th century, with the spellings farme, feerme, ferm and firme, and records the insular phrases for "blanch farm", a nominal rent, and "frank ferm", a freehold held at a fixed rent, and for letting and taking land to farm.^[2] The MED derives Middle English ferme "lease, fixed payment for land" from Old French ferme, comparing Medieval Latin firma,^[10] and English farm comes from it.^[1]

Word family

• fermier

Descendants

• Middle French ferme (→ French ferme)^[1]
• Middle English ferme (borrowed; → English farm)^[10]

Related words

• fermer
• ferm

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy, the AND and the DMF head the noun ferme, numbered apart from ferm "firm", whose feminine has the same spelling.^{[11][2][12][3]}

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. ferme
3. ^ 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. 3:759
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ferme
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ferme
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:571
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fermer
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3318
9. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 449
10. ^ a b c 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)
11. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1744
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. ferme
13. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1745