maire

Forms

maire (nominative singular; oblique maior, maor)^[1][2]

• maior, maor, maour, maiour, maieur, mair, mayre, mayor^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin maior (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”).^[5][1][6][7] The nominative continues the Latin nominative, while the oblique maieur continues the accusative maiōrem, but the two soon lost their case values.^[6][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian maggiore, Old Occitan maire, Spanish mayor and Portuguese maior.^[9]

As a noun the Latin comparative meant "chief, principal person" from the 4th century, an estate officer from the early 6th, and in Medieval Latin a village judge (977) and the mayor of a commune (1136).^[8][10] Gamillscheg notes that Late Latin already used it as a form of address, "lord".^[1] The learned French majeur is a later borrowing of the same Latin word.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The AND first cites the word from 1113–1119.^[3] Greimas dates maior "ancestor" to the beginning of the 12th century, in the Cambridge Psalter,^[12] and the TLFi says the oblique maieur is recorded from the end of the 10th century.^[8] The adjective is clear in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, about 1165: Hector, beaus filz, tu ies li maire "Hector, fair son, you are the greatest".^[8][13]

Semantic evolution

As an adjective the word meant "greater", "older" and "greatest", as in Chrétien's Qu'ancor n'an fust la joie maire "that the joy would not have been greater still".^[4][14] As a noun it named a lord or leader, the elders or ancestors, and the officers who governed a place: the TLFi first records the head of a municipal body in Guillaume d'Angleterre, about 1170,^[8] and Chrétien's Perceval has li meres et li eschevin "the mayor and the aldermen".^[4] Greimas adds the head of a craft guild.^[12]

Under the old regime maire named various officers of this kind, and the modern administrative sense dates from the Revolution (1789).^[6][8] Maire du palais (1573) translates Merovingian Latin maior palatii.^[8][6] The adjective "greater" gave way to the learned majeur.^[11]

Timeline

• 1113–1119 – the first record cited by the AND, in an Anglo-Norman text.^[3]
• early 12th century – maior "ancestor" in the Cambridge Psalter.^[12]
• c. 1165 – the adjective maire "greatest" in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[8][13]
• c. 1170 – the head of a municipal body, in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[8][10]
• c. 1170 – joie maire "greater joy" in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[4]
• 1323–1325 – the Anglo-Norman derivative mairalté "mayoralty".^[15]
• 1789 – the elected head of the municipal body.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. greater, larger; older.^[3][14][4]
2. greatest, supreme; powerful.^[3][13]

Noun

1. a leader, lord, superior.^[3][1]
2. a mayor, the chief magistrate and governor of a town or commune.^[3][4][8]
3. the head of a craft guild.^[12]
4. (plural) ancestors, elders.^[12][3]
5. a Roman magistrate.^[3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word maiur, first cites it from 1113–1119, and records many spellings, among them maier, maieur, maior, mair, maire, maor, mayor, mayr and meir.^[3] Its senses run from "greater" and "older" to the mayor, chief magistrate and governor of a town, and the derivative mairalté "mayoralty" is recorded from 1323–1325.^[3][15] Middle English borrowed the word as mair, meir, the source of English mayor, first recorded about 1300.^[16]

Word family

• mairesse
• mairalté

Descendants

• Middle French maire (→ French maire)^[17]
• Norman maire^[17]
• Middle English maire (borrowed; → English mayor)^[17]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch and the DÉCT head the word major and the AND maiur,^[2][4][3] while the DMF and the TLFi split it into majeur and maire.^[4][8] The spelling maire is also a form of mere "mother"^[17] and, in Normandy from 1326, of mare "pond", a word of Norse origin.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 626
2. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 5:929
3. ^ 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. maiur
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. major
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1:55
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 423
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. magnus
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5247
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. maire
11. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 424
12. ^ a b c d e 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. maior
13. ^ a b c Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
14. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 5:930
15. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. mairalté
16. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
17. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
18. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16:533