plaisir

Forms

plaisir (present participle plaisant; past participle pleü; first-person singular present plaz, plais)^[1]

• plesir, pleisir, pleissir, plaissir, plasir, playsir, pleysir, pleser, plaesir, pleasir^[2][3]

Chrétien de Troyes writes the noun pleisir, and the verb as pleisir beside plaire, pleire and plere.^[4][5] The noun is masculine, with the oblique plural and nominative singular plaisirs.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin placeō (“to be pleasing”), the infinitive of the Latin verb continued regularly in Old French.^[1][6][7][8] Wiktionary takes the noun for the infinitive used as a noun,^[1] and the DHLF dates that use to the Roland.^[9] De Vaan lists placidus (“quiet, peaceful”) among the derivatives of the Latin verb,^[10] and the OLD compares Tocharian B plāki (“agreement”).^[11] The DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance verb from cognates in every branch, among them Italian piacere, Spanish placer and Romanian plăcea.^[12][8]

From the 12th century a new infinitive, plaire, stood beside it and replaced it as the verb by the 13th century.^[7][13] Bloch and Wartburg and Gamillscheg explain the new form by analogy with faire and traire, whose third persons singular rhymed with that of this verb,^[7][14] while the DHLF also records the view that it continues a Vulgar Latin variant with a short vowel in the ending.^[13] Only the noun survived.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland, about 1100, the infinitive is already a noun in a son plaisir “at his will”.^[15][16][17] Greimas dates the verb to the Roland too,^[18] and Wiktionnaire quotes the verb from a Paris manuscript of the Vie de saint Alexis: Et ceo nos doinst Deus que or li puissiuns plaisir “and may God grant us that we may now please him”.^[19]

Semantic evolution

As a noun the word first meant what someone wishes or commands: the DHLF gives this as its only Old French sense, from Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire of 1121–1134.^[9][15] Chrétien de Troyes uses it so, as in car je ferai vostre pleisir “for I shall do your will”.^[4] Greimas also lists “pleasure, delight” and “desire”, and bon plaisir “will”.^[18]

The modern sense, an agreeable feeling, is recorded from 1349, prendre plaisir a from about 1433, and the royal formula tel est notre bon plaisir from 1638.^[15][9] As a verb the word gave way to plaire in the 13th century.^[13][14]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – plaisir as a noun in a son plaisir in the Chanson de Roland.^[15][16][17]
• 1100–1125 – in the Voyage de saint Brendan, an Anglo-Norman text.^[20]
• 1100–1133 – the earliest Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[2]
• 1121–1134 – the noun for what one wishes, in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire.^[15][9]
• c. 1170 – pleisir in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[4][21]
• 13th century – the infinitive plaisir gives way to plaire.^[13]
• 1349 – plaisir for an agreeable feeling.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. to please, be pleasing or agreeable to someone.^[18][2]
2. to satisfy, do someone a pleasure.^[18][2]
3. (impersonal) it pleases, as in wishes such as “if it please God”.^[2]

Noun

1. what one wishes or commands; will, wish.^[4][9][2]
2. pleasure, delight.^[18][1]
3. desire.^[18]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads verb and noun together as plaisir and cites them from the first third of the 12th century, with spellings such as plesir, pleisir, pleser and plere.^[2] It records the participles as adjectives, “pleasant” and “pleased”, and the infinitive as a noun for a wish or what pleases, as in “to do one's will”.^[2] Middle English took the verb as plesen, whence please,^[22][23] and the noun as plesire, whence pleasure.^[23]

Word family

• plaisant

Descendants

• Middle French plaisir (→ French plaisir)^[24][15]
• Middle French plaire (→ French plaire)^[25][1]
• Norman pllaisir^[1]
• Walloon plaisi^[1]
• Middle English plesen (borrowed; → English please)^[22][23]
• Dutch plezier (borrowed)^[1]

Related words

• plaire

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch heads the verb plaire and the noun plaisir,^[26][27] as do the DÉCT and the DMF,^[5][24] while the AND heads both under plaisir.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. plaisir
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 Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. plaisir
5. ^ a b Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. plaire
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:1
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 530
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6557
9. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. plaisir
10. ^ 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. placeō
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. placeō
12. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
13. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. plaire
14. ^ a b c Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 748
15. ^ a b c d e f g 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
16. ^ a b 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
17. ^ a b 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. RolS
18. ^ a b c d e f 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. plaisir
19. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
20. ^ Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. BrendanS
21. ^ 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
22. ^ 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)
23. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
24. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. plaisir
25. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. plaire
26. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1042
27. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1051