francês

Forms

francês (feminine francesa, masculine plural franceses, feminine plural francesas)^[1] Old Galician-Portuguese wrote frances and françes, also frãçes.^[2] Later texts have framces (1500) and frãçeses (1522), and before the 20th-century reforms the word was spelt francez.^[3][4]

Etymology

Houaiss and the DLP treat it as formed in the language, from Portuguese França + -ês, recorded since the 13th century.^[5][6][7] Cunha, Nascentes and Aurélio derive it instead from franceis, the Old French form, and Nascentes adds françois, “pronounced the old way”.^[8][9][10] Wiktionary has it inherited from Latin francēnsis, while Lorenzo leaves open whether it was formed on the name of the country or taken from Old Occitan frances.^[1][2] The DLE likewise derives the Spanish word francés from Occitan fransés.^[11]

The name of the country goes back to Francia (“land of the Franks”), recorded in Ausonius, from francus (“a Frank”), which is Frankish *frank, the name of the people.^[5] Wiktionary traces the Frankish name to Proto-Germanic *frankô (“javelin”).^[1] The French word français is a late remaking of that Old French form, recorded in 1080 in the Chanson de Roland; Italian francese and Galician francés are the Italian and Galician words.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss and Cunha date the word to the 13th century.^[5][8] The Cantigas de Santa Maria have o Rey frances “the French king” and tell of a miracle that befell un frances in France.^[2] In the Crónica Geral and the Miragres de Santiago it is frequent in camiño frances, the pilgrims' road to Santiago, a name still used in Galicia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant both the people and the adjective “of France” from the first texts, and the language in the Crónica Troiana, which says its story was turned em françes.^[2] Cardoso's dictionary of 1569 renders it by Latin Gallus.^[13] Figueiredo (1899) already has the figurative sense “falsely polite; hypocritical”, which the DLP still records as popular and disparaging.^[14][6][15]

Through Portuguese the word reached Malay Perancis and Indonesian Prancis, and through Persian the words for “French” in Bengali and Hindi.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, among them o Rey frances in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.^[5][8][2]
• 14th century – camiño françes in the Miragres de Santiago.^[2]
• 1500 – framces in a private letter, and frãçeses in 1522.^[3]
• 1569 – Cardoso's dictionary has Frances, Latin Gallus.^[13]
• 1836 – first record of afrancesar, spelt afrancezar.^[8]
• 1899 – Figueiredo records the sense “hypocritical, false”.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to France (França), its people or its culture: a cozinha francesa.^[5][6][1]
2. Of the French language: um verbo francês.^[5]
3. Made in France or by French authors: um filme francês.^[5][16]
4. (figurative, popular, pejorative) Falsely polite; hypocritical (hipócrita).^[5][6][7]

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of France; a Frenchman.^[5][6][1]
2. The French language.^[5][10][6]

Word family

• afrancesar
• francesia

Related words

• França
• franco
• frâncico
• French français
• Spanish francés

Usage notes

Idioms: despedir-se à francesa “to take French leave”, à grande e à francesa “in grand style”, and falar francês “to have money; to pay or bribe”, the last informal and in Portugal disparaging.^[7][15][5]

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 Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. frances
3. ^ a b CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. francês
4. ^ Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. francês
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. francês
6. ^ a b c d e f Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. francês
7. ^ a b c Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 4454
8. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. francês
9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. francês
10. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. francês
11. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. francés
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. français
13. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. frances
14. ^ a b Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 631
15. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. francês
16. ^ Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. francês