bizarre French · revision 15599

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=borrowing|attested=before 1544, bigarre}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /bi.zaʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''bizarre''' (plural bizarres)^(Wiktionary)

+ In the 16th century it was also written ''bigearre'', ''bigarre'' (by crossing with [[bigarré]] “variegated”) and ''bizerre'';^(Grand Robert 2005) ''bigearre'' lasted until the early 18th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|it|bizzarro|t=irascible; extravagant]],^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(Grand Robert 2005) which meant “angry” in the early 14th century and “extravagant” from the early 16th.^(DHLF 1992) The origin of the Italian word is uncertain.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Rey and Bloch and Wartburg reject both a borrowing from [[es|bizarro|t=brave]], which is later (1526) and itself taken from Italian, and a derivation from [[eu|bizar|t=beard]];^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) the Petit Robert and the GLLF still give the Spanish word as the source of the Italian one.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989) Littré thought the French word came from Spanish, since it first meant “brave”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is recorded before 1544 as ''bigarre'', both as a feminine noun meaning “oddity” and as an adjective for a strange, singular person or thing;^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) in 1558 Des Périers writes of a man's “opinions bigearres”.^(Littré 1873)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In the 16th century the word also meant “irritable”, after Italian, and “brave”, after Spanish (La Noue calls the French soldier ''bisarre'', unable to live without fighting), but these senses and the noun ''une bizarre'' died out after that century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873) Classical French used it for the extravagant and whimsical (La Bruyère),^(GLLF 1989) and the modern sense is simply “odd, strange”.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert) ''Bizarrerie'' (1555) displaced the rivals ''bizarreté'' and ''bizarderie'',^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) and the jocular ''bizarroïde'' appears in Alphonse Allais (1893).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * before 1544 – ''Bigarre''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * 1555 – ''Bizarrerie''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1558 – ''Bigearre'' in Des Périers.^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+ * 1572 – The spelling ''bizarre'', in Tabourot des Accords.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * 1893 – ''Bizarroïde''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Odd, [[m|en|strange]], out of the ordinary.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(of a person)'' Hard to understand; [[m|en|eccentric]].^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(classical)'' Whimsical, [[m|en|capricious]], extravagant.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[bizarrerie]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[bizarrement]]

+ * [[bigarré]]

+ * [[en|bizarre]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}