joie

Forms

joie f (oblique plural joies)^[1]

• goie, joye, joaye, jeoye^[2]

The early form goie is that of the Vie de saint Alexis and of other texts into the 13th century, and Picard also wrote goye and ghoie.^[2] The word is usually feminine, but the DEAF counts about twenty records of it as a masculine.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gaudia (“expressions of joy”), the plural of gaudium (“joy”), taken as a feminine singular.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The plural was frequent in familiar Latin, which explains its use in the spoken language,^[5] and the Latin noun is derived from gaudeō (“to rejoice”).^[6]

The singular lived on in much of the Romance world, and the DÉRom reconstructs Vulgar Latin */ˈɡaudi-u/ for most of Italo-Western Romance;^[2][7] south of a line from the Loire to the Vosges the Gallo-Romance forms continue it, and Old French itself has a masculine joi.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Vie de saint Alexis, dated about 1090 by the DEAF and about 1050 by the DHLF, where the word is spelled goie.^[2][8][6][9] It already has its main sense, a pleasant feeling of the whole mind at a deep satisfaction.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The DEAF separates the feeling itself, joy shown in outward signs, often by a crowd, and joy at a particular cause.^[2] In religious language joie du ciel, joie pardurable and joie sans fin name the perfect bliss of heaven given by God, and the AND records the Five Joys of the Virgin.^[2][10] In the lyric poetry of courtly love, joy is one of the central moral values, beside courtesy and noble conduct.^[2]

Set phrases followed: a joie "with joy" from the Roland, faire joie a "to show joy towards someone", male joie, ironically the opposite of joy, feme de joie "prostitute" from 1316 and fille de joie from 1389.^[2] From the early 13th century the word also named a precious thing offered to give someone pleasure, which the DEAF explains as a shift from the feeling to its cause; in the 13th century it was also a legal term for the enjoyment of property in usufruct.^[2]

The word was borrowed into Italian gioia, Old Occitan joia, Catalan joia, Middle Dutch joye, Middle High German schoie and Middle English;^[2] Spanish joya took it only in the sense of the precious gift.^[2] The modern French word is joie.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1090 – goie in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050 by the DHLF's dating).^{[2][9][11][6]}
• c. 1100 – joie and a joie in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][12][13]
• 1113–1119 – the first Anglo-Norman record cited by the AND.^[10][14]
• c. 1160 – demener joie "to show joy" in the Roman d'Eneas.^[2]
• c. 1170 – in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[15][16]
• early 13th century – a precious thing given as a present.^[2]
• 1316 – feme de joie "prostitute".^[2]
• 1389 – fille de joie.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. joy, happiness: a pleasant feeling at a deep satisfaction.^[2][10][15]
2. joy shown outwardly, rejoicing, festivity.^[2][17]
3. (religion) the bliss of heaven.^[2][10]
4. one of the Five Joys of the Virgin.^[10]
5. a precious thing given as a present; a jewel.^[2][17]
6. (law) enjoyment of property in usufruct.^[2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word joie and first cites it from 1113–1119.^[10] It records the Five Joys of the Virgin and their depiction, heavenly bliss, and verbal phrases for rejoicing and for welcoming someone joyfully.^[10] Middle English took the word as joie, also joi, recorded from about 1230 according to the DEAF, whence the English word joy,^[2] which Etymonline dates from about 1200.^[18]

Word family

• joios
• joiosement

Descendants

• Middle French joie (→ French joie)^[19][1]
• Picard goie^[1]
• Walloon djôye^[1]
• Italian gioia (borrowed)^[2]
• Old Occitan joia (borrowed)^[2]
• Catalan joia (borrowed)^[2]
• Spanish joya (borrowed)^[2]
• Portuguese joia (borrowed)^[2]
• Middle Dutch joye (borrowed)^[2]
• Middle High German schoie (borrowed)^[2]
• Middle English joie (borrowed; → English joy)^[2][18]

Related words

• joir
• joi

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, the DEAF, the DÉCT, the AND and the DMF all head the word joie.^{[20][2][15][10][19]} Wiktionary also lists joie as a spelling of jouel "jewel";^[1] the DEAF instead derives the sense "precious gift" from this word and leaves a link with joiel open.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 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. joie
3. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4:80
4. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 580
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 391
6. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. joie
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ 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. AlexisS2
9. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. AlexisZ
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. joie
11. ^ UD Old French PROFITEROLE and UD Middle French PROFITEROLE treebanks, Universal Dependencies (from the SRCMF and the Base de français médiéval; texts by DEAF siglum), p. AlexisZ
12. ^ 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. RolS
13. ^ 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. RolS
14. ^ 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. PhThCompS
15. ^ a b c Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. joie
16. ^ 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. ErecF
17. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
18. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
19. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. joie
20. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1715