regard

Forms

regard m (oblique plural regarz, regartz; nominative singular regarz, regartz)^[1]

• regart, resgart, resgard, reguart, reguard, rewart, reward, regar^[2][3]

Regart is by far the most frequent spelling in the corpora, then regard and resgart.^[2] The Roland writes reguart, and the AND lists reward and rewart among the insular forms.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from Old French regarder (“to look at”).^[5][6] The verb is formed with the prefix re- on garder, which also meant “to look at, watch”,^[7] and that verb comes from Frankish *wardōn (“to watch, observe”).^[8][9] The Reichenau glosses pair Latin rewardant with respectant, and Gamillscheg takes the former for a Gallo-Romance derivative of the Frankish verb.^[5] The Frankish word belongs with Old English weardian (“to guard”), Old Saxon wardōn (“to protect, beware”) and Old High German wartēn (“to wait, watch”).^[10]

The DHLF notes an older verb reswarder, about 980, later resgarder, formed on eswarder or esgarder of the same meaning.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Passion de Clermont, about 1000, where regard is the act or manner of looking, or the look in someone's eyes.^[11][12][6] The Roland, about 1100, has reguart.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

From a look the word passed to attention paid to someone, recorded in the Oxford Psalter in the first half of the 12th century,^[6] and to care and wariness: Chrétien de Troyes has prendre regart de soi “to look out for oneself” and avoir regart “to have something to fear”.^[14] In Chrétien it is also the look of the eyes, as in d'un dolz regart “with a sweet look”.^[14] From 1262 it meant an inspection, of wine for example, and Greimas lists the supervision of a craft and the fee paid for it.^[6][15] The phrase a regard de “with regard to” is recorded in an Anglo-French letter of 1300, au regard de in 1377.^[6] The modern word is French regard.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – regard in the Passion de Clermont.^[11][12][6]
• c. 1100 – reguart in the Chanson de Roland.^[4][13]
• 1121–1125 – the earliest Anglo-Norman record the AND cites.^[3]
• first half of the 12th century – “attention” in the Oxford Psalter.^[6]
• c. 1170 – regart in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[14]
• 1262 – “inspection” of wine.^[6]
• 1300 – a regard de “with regard to”, in an Anglo-French letter.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. a look, glance, the act of looking.^[14][3][1]
2. the expression of the eyes; appearance, aspect.^[14][15]
3. attention, heed, consideration.^[14][3]
4. fear, cause for fear.^[14][15]
5. inspection, supervision of a craft; a fee or payment for it.^[6][15][3]
6. a regard de, au regard de: with regard to, in comparison with.^[6][3]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word regard, first cites it from 1121–1125, and lists insular spellings such as reguard, reward and rewart.^[3] Besides a look and consideration, the insular word meant a forest inspection and the bounds of a forest, a payment for a service, compensation for a loss, and the share of the quarry given to the hounds.^[3] Middle English took regard, “a look; a consideration”,^[16][17] and the form reward, which the MED calls Anglo-Norman and Northern French, gave Middle English reward and English reward.^[16][17]

Descendants

• Middle French regard (→ French regard)^[18][6]
• Middle English regard (borrowed; → English regard)^[16][17]
• Middle English reward (borrowed; → English reward)^[16][17]

Related words

• regarde
• garder
• esgarder

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the DÉCT head the word regart, the AND, the DMF and the TLFi regard.^[14][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. regard
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 802
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. regarder
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17:510
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9502
10. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 448
11. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas, CorMétAF: lemmatised extracts of Old and Middle French verse and prose (990–1500), github (texts by siglum), p. PassionA
12. ^ a b Rainsford, Thomas (2025), Old Gallo-Romance Corpus, github (the earliest Gallo-Romance texts, lemmatised; texts by siglum), p. PassionA
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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. regart
15. ^ a b c d 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. regart
16. ^ a b c d 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)
17. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. regard