present

Forms

present m (oblique plural presenz, presentz; nominative singular presenz, presentz)^[1]

• presant, presen, presaunt, presand^[2][3][4]

Chrétien de Troyes's manuscripts write presant and presanz;^[5] the AND lists insular presaunt and presand.^[4]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin praesēns (“present, at hand”),^[6][7][8] the present participle of praesum (“to be before, be at the head”), from prae- (“before”) and sum (“to be”).^[9][6] Wiktionary treats it as inherited from the Latin word.^[1]

The noun “gift” is a deverbal noun from Old French presenter (“to present, offer”);^[10][11] Tobler–Lommatzsch and the AND treat it as a separate head from the adjective.^[12][4] The verb is borrowed from Late Latin praesentō (“to make present; to offer”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tobler–Lommatzsch's earliest record is the Sponsus, a south-western play of before 1100, where the word appears in the phrase “en present”.^[14][15][3] The DHLF also has the phrase en present “in the presence of” first, from the Latin in praesenti.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant “being there”, as opposed to absent, and is used alone of a person from about 1130.^[6] The temporal sense “existing now” is recorded from the end of the 12th century, and in charters ceste present chartre “this present charter” from the 13th.^[16][17] En present and de present meant “at once”, and en present fait “in the act, red-handed”.^[18][3] The noun “gift” is recorded from the early 12th century in the Voyage de Charlemagne,^[18] and Chrétien de Troyes uses it often.^[19] The Vie de saint Gilles, about 1170, lists the gifts of the Magi: Li terz present fud mirre cher “the third gift was precious myrrh”.^[10]

Middle French extended the adjective to things and to “active, acting at once” (1543), and the modern word is French présent.^[6] English present took the adjective about 1300 and the noun “the present time” about the same time.^[20]

Timeline

• 1075–1100 – the Sponsus.^[14][15]
• c. 1100 – present in the Chanson de Roland.^[21][22]
• 1100–1133 – the first record of the adjective in the AND.^[4]
• early 12th century – the noun “gift” in the Voyage de Charlemagne.^[18]
• 1125–1150 – the first Anglo-Norman record of the noun “gift”.^[4]
• c. 1170 – present “gift” in the Vie de saint Gilles.^[10]
• 1212 – present of a charter, in Villehardouin.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. present, in the same place.^[14][4]
2. existing now, current.^[14][4]
3. ready, available.^[4][19]
4. (of a document) this present.^[4][17]

Noun

1. a gift, offering.^[4][19][18]
2. a gift serving as a bribe.^[4]
3. en present de: in the presence of.^[14][4]
4. en present, de present: at once, immediately.^[18][3]
5. (grammar) the present tense.^[14][4]

Anglo-Norman

The AND has two heads: the adjective, first cited from the first third of the 12th century, with insular senses such as “attending in court”, “imminent” and “the present world”; and the noun “gift”, first cited from the second quarter of the 12th century, with faire present “to give, offer”.^[4] English present comes from the Old French word and directly from Latin.^[20]

Word family

• presentement

Descendants

• French présent^[23][6]
• Middle English present (borrowed; → English present)^[20][4]

Related words

• presenter

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the AND separate the adjective from the noun “gift”, which the FEW files under the verb;^{[14][3][4][11]} the DMF heads them présent and the TLFi présent.^[24][23]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. presenter
3. ^ a b c d e Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 6:389
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. present
5. ^ 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. YvainF
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. présent
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 548
8. ^ Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 769
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. praesens
10. ^ a b c Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:309
12. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1795
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. présenter
14. ^ a b c d e f g Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1790
15. ^ 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. SponsusK
16. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:306
17. ^ a b Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 10:410
18. ^ 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. present
19. ^ a b c Foerster, Wendelin; Breuer, Hermann (1914), Kristian von Troyes: Wörterbuch zu seinen sämtlichen Werken, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 220
20. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
21. ^ 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. present
22. ^ 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
23. ^ a b 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
24. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. present