grace

Forms

grace f (oblique plural graces)^[1]

• grasce^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin grātia (“favour; thanks; charm”).^[1][3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed from grātus (“pleasing”) with the suffix -ia.^[1]

The DEAF explains that the Latin word survived as a native word only in Sardinian, and that all the Romance languages borrowed it from the Christian writers of Late Latin, chiefly in the sense of divine grace: Italian grazia, Spanish gracia, Portuguese graça.^[3] Bloch and Wartburg add that the main French senses were already Latin, the theological one included.^[5] The Latin spelling in the Vie de saint Léger is, for the DEAF, a Latin word set in the French text rather than Old French.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first French record is the Vie de saint Alexis, which the DEAF dates to about 1090 and the TLFi to about 1050.^[3][4] There the word means the favour of God, in par la Deu grace “by the grace of God”.^[4][6][7]

Semantic evolution

From God's favour the word spread to the favour of people: from 1135 it meant "thanks", as in rendre graces “to give thanks” in Wace's life of Saint Margaret.^[4][6] In the middle of the 12th century it is recorded for the charm of a thing, in the Jeu d'Adam, and at the end of the century for the charm of a person.^[4] In 1174–1176 Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it for a pardon, the remission of a penalty.^[4] Tobler–Lommatzsch also lists a gift of grace, the regard in which someone is held, and a privilege.^[8][9][10]

The DEAF notes how many senses and records the word has in Old French, against its rarer use in Modern French.^[3] Until the 17th century it meant chiefly "favour, pardon, thanks", and the last of these is now old-fashioned.^[5] The modern word is French grâce, and the preposition grâce à “thanks to” dates from 1564.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1090 – par la Deu grace in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the TLFi's dating).^[3][7][4]
• 1125 – grace and graces in the Cambridge Psalter, in an Anglo-Norman manuscript of about 1140.^[11]
• 1135 – rendre graces “to give thanks” in Wace.^[4]
• mid-12th century – the charm of a thing, in the Jeu d'Adam.^[4]
• c. 1170 – grace in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[12]
• 1174–1176 – a pardon, in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket.^[4]
• 1564 – the French preposition grâce à.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. the grace of God, divine favour and help.^[13][14][15]
2. favour, goodwill; a gift or privilege granted.^[14][10]
3. mercy, pardon.^[4][14][15]
4. (chiefly plural) thanks, gratitude.^[4][14]
5. charm, elegance.^[4][14][15]
6. good name, the regard in which one is held.^[9]

Anglo-Norman

The AND first cites the word from the beginning of the 13th century, though the Cambridge Psalter already has it in the first half of the 12th.^[14][11] Its insular senses include a dispensation, a writ of pardon, a privilege, a grant or award, a clerical benefice, and thanks.^[14] The compound gracedeu named chickweed from about 1300.^[16] English borrowed the Old French word about 1200.^[3][17]

Descendants

• Middle French grace (→ French grâce)^[1][18]
• Middle English grace (borrowed; → English grace)^[17][3]

Related words

• graciier

Usage notes

The verb graciier “to thank” is not derived from this noun: the DEAF takes it from Medieval Latin gratiare.^[19] Wiktionary's page grace also holds a spelling of cras “fat”, which is another word.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
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 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. grace
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 341
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. grâce
7. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. AlexisZ
8. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:496
9. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:498
10. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:499
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. grace
13. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:494
14. ^ a b c d e f g Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. grace
15. ^ 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. grace
16. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. gracedeu
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. grâce
19. ^ 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. graciier