fortune

Forms

fortune f^[1]

• fourtune^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fortūna (“chance, fate; good luck”).^[3][4][5][6] The Latin word is related to fors (“chance”).^[4][7] The REW lists the Romance forms, such as Italian fortuna, and notes that the word spread from the Mediterranean peoples into Slavic, Greek and Albanian.^[8]

Gamillscheg holds that, of its Old French senses, only "storm" developed in popular speech.^[6] Bloch and Wartburg take this sense, which appears in the 13th and 14th centuries, from Old Occitan fortuna, and trace it back to popular Latin.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The AND's first citation is of 1155.^[9] The DHLF dates the word to about 1130, for the goddess who stands for fate, and the TLFi's first record is the Roman d'Énéas, about 1160, for the power that hands out good and bad luck and its allegorical figure.^[4][3] The Roman de Thèbes, of about the same time, writes it Fortune.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th century the word was chiefly the personified Fortune, the goddess, and fate or chance.^[1][11][3] Brunetto Latini uses it in 1265 for chance, and good luck appears at the end of the 13th century.^[3][4] The same author, in 1265, uses it for a storm at sea, a sense still alive in fortune de mer.^[3][4] An ordinance of 1270 has fortune d'or “gold found by chance”.^[3]

The sense "wealth" is late: the DHLF dates it from the 15th century and the TLFi from Montaigne, 1580, after the Latin plural meaning "riches".^[4][3][5] The modern word is French fortune.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1130 – the goddess Fortune, by the DHLF's dating.^[4]
• 1155 – the first record cited by the AND.^[9]
• c. 1160 – Fortune in the Roman d'Énéas and the Roman de Thèbes.^[3][10]
• c. 1170 – fortune in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[12]
• 1265 – “chance” and “storm” in Brunetto Latini.^[3]
• 1270 – fortune d'or “gold found by chance”.^[3]
• 1580 – “riches” in Montaigne.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. fate, chance, luck.^[1][9][13]
2. Fortune personified, the goddess of fate.^[11][3]
3. good fortune, blessing.^[9][13]
4. misfortune, mishap, disaster.^[9][13]
5. a storm.^[11][3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from 1155, for fate, chance, good fortune and misfortune, and records also the senses "money" and "wheel of fortune".^[9] The verb fortuner “to endow with fortune; to happen” is recorded in England only from 1356–1357.^[14] Middle English took the word about 1300, for chance or luck as a force in human affairs.^[7]

Word family

• fortuner

Descendants

• Middle French fortune (→ French fortune)^[15]
• Middle English fortune (borrowed; → English fortune)^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:2163
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. fortune
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 311
6. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 470
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3458
9. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. fortune
10. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. ThebesR
11. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:2164
12. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. fortune
13. ^ a b c 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. fortune
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. fortuner
15. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. fortune