labeur French · revision 15782

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=first half of the 12th century, Oxford Psalter, labur|origins=la labor}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /la.bœʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''labeur''' ''m'' (plural labeurs)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French ''labur'', ''labor'', ''labour''^(GLLF 1989)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873); ''labeur'' from the 14th century^(GLLF 1989)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873). Often feminine until the 15th century.^(GLLF 1989)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|labor|t=toil, effort, hardship]], with the ending made French on the model of the many words in “-eur”;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|5, 103b) Wiktionary has it pass through Old French [[m|fro|labor]].^(Wiktionary) Rey thinks the Latin word may be related to [[m|la|lābor|t=to slip]], and first meant a load under which one totters, then suffering, then toil.^(DHLF 1992) In Latin it belonged mostly to country speech for hard farm work, the usual words for work being “opus” and “opera”, whence the old sense “ploughing” kept in French until the 16th century (compare [[labourer]]).^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ Cognate with [[oc|labor]], [[es|labor]] and [[it|lavoro]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century) ''labur'' means pain, affliction or misfortune, and in the plural the fruit of one's work.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense “affliction” belongs to Old French; keeping the idea of pain, ''labeur'' became hard, sustained work (Wace, 1155).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) The plural “fruits of labour” disappeared before the classical period, and Furetière already noted that the word was ageing.^(DHLF 1992) It is now literary, and popular or regional as a plain synonym of ''travail''^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)^(Petit Robert 2007); ''terres en labeur'' were lands under the plough.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ In printing (1730) a ''labeur'' is a large job of typesetting and printing, as opposed to small jobbing work, and ''imprimerie de labeur'' a book printer's.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * first half of the 12th century – ''Labur'' “affliction”; plural “fruits of labour”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1155 – Hard work (Wace).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 14th century – The form ''labeur''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1690 – Furetière notes that it is ageing.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1694 – First recorded by the Académie.^(TLFi)

+ * 1730 – A printing term.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(literary)'' Hard, sustained work; [[m|en|toil]], [[m|en|labour]]: ''une vie de labeur''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(printing)'' A large book-printing job: ''imprimerie de labeur''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[labourer]]

+ * [[laborieux]]

+ * [[la|labor]]

+ * [[en|labour]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}