Etymologically
Log in

jornee

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Old French word jornee

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1113–1119 the earliest Anglo-Norman text the AND cites More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin *diurnata
Ultimate origin
Latin diurnum
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French jornee
English journey
From the same root
English journeyman ← jornee

Pronunciation

  • Reconstructed: /d͡ʒuɾˈneːə/[1]

Forms

jornee f (oblique plural jornees)[1]

The DÉCT records only jornee and jornees in Chrétien de Troyes,[4] while the insular spellings run from jornee and jurnee to jorneie, jurney and journey.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *diurnāta, a Gallo-Romance derivative of diurnum (“day”).[5][1][6] The Latin noun is the neuter of diurnus (“of one day”), from diēs (“day”).[7] The FEW files the word under the same Latin noun,[8] and the TLFi and Wiktionary also describe it as formed in Old French from jor (“day”) with the suffix -ee.[9][1] Etymonline notes that this suffix, from Latin -āta, made nouns of quantity and of spans of time from nouns.[7]

The word was borrowed into Italian giornata and other languages of Italy, and back into Latin as Medieval Latin diurnāta.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is Anglo-Norman: the AND first cites jurnee from a text of 1113–1119, and its senses there run from "day, daytime" to "a day's journey".[2] On the Continent the TLFi first dates the sense "a day's travel" to Wace's Vie de saint Nicolas of about 1150, where the word also served as a measure of distance.[9]

Semantic evolution

Chrétien de Troyes uses it for the span between sunrise and sunset and, more often, for a day's stage of a journey, as in Erec's mout longue voie et grant jornee "a very long road and a great day's journey".[4] Wace has it for a day's work in 1155 and for the land ploughed in a day, an agrarian measure, by 1160–1174;[9] Ambroise uses it about 1195 for a day of battle, and the phrase a jornee meant "all day long".[9] By 1260 it could mean a day's wages.[9] Tobler–Lommatzsch groups the senses as a day's journey, a day's journey as a measure of distance, a day's work, a day of battle, a day's wage and time in general.[10]

In law and diplomacy it was an appointed day: Godefroy's lexicon gives "rendezvous", a day fixed for appearing in court and a conference or negotiation.[11][12] Middle French added a short garment worn over armour, recorded in the accounts of King René in 1453.[13] The modern word is French journée, still "the day, considered as a span or by its work".[9]

Timeline

  • 1113–1119 – jurnee in the earliest Anglo-Norman text the AND cites.[2]
  • c. 1150 – "a day's journey" in Wace's Vie de saint Nicolas.[9]
  • 1155 – jornee in the Roman d'Eneas,[14] and "a day's work" in Wace's Brut.[9]
  • c. 1170 – in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.[4][15]
  • c. 1195 – "a day of battle" in Ambroise's Estoire de la guerre sainte.[9]
  • 1260 – "a day's wage" in Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers.[9]
  • 1453 – a garment worn over armour, in the accounts of King René.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a day, the time from sunrise to sunset;[4][9][2] a jornee, all day long.[4][9][2]
  2. a day's journey, a stage of travel; also a measure of distance.[4][16][2]
  3. a day's work, and the land ploughed in a day.[9][17]
  4. a day of battle.[17][2]
  5. a day's wages.[18][9]
  6. an appointed day, a day fixed for appearing in court; a meeting for negotiation.[11][12][2]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word jurnee, first cites it from 1113–1119 and lists insular spellings such as jorneie, jurney and journey.[2] Besides the day, the day of battle, the day's march and the day's work, it records the senses "day's sitting" and "sojourn", and the legal journey accounts, the time allowed a plaintiff to obtain a second writ after the first had been quashed; a common day's journey was reckoned at about twenty miles.[2] Etymonline traces the English word journey, recorded from about 1200, to this word.[7]

Descendants

  • French journée[1]
  • Norman journée[1]
  • Cornish jorna (borrowed)[1]
  • Friulian zornade (borrowed)[1]
  • Istriot zurnada (borrowed)[1]
  • Italian giornata (borrowed)[1]
  • Middle English journe (borrowed; → English journey, Scots jurney)[1]
  • Sicilian jurnata (borrowed)[1]
  • Venetian zornada (borrowed)[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and the DÉCT head the word jornee, Godefroy journee, the AND jurnee and the DMF journée.[10][4][2][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. jurnee
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. jornee
  5. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 582
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2700
  7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3:103
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
  10. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1791
  11. ^ a b Godefroy, Frédéric (1901), Lexique de l'ancien français, ed. J. Bonnard and A. Salmon, Paris / Leipzig: Welter, p. 1:295
  12. ^ a b 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. jornee
  13. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. journee
  14. ^ Penn Parsed Corpus of Historical French, version 1.0, University of Pennsylvania & University of Ottawa (texts by file name), p. 1155-eneas1-bfm-r
  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. ErecF
  16. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1793
  17. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1794
  18. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 4:1795

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Jornee.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fro/jornee. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·