district French · revision 15903

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1421|origins=la stringō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /dis.tʁikt/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /dis.tʁik/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''district''' ''m'' (plural districts)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la-lat|districtus|t=territory, outskirts]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|3, 101a) from “districtum”, the supine of [[la|distringō|t=to hold back, constrain]], itself from [[m|la|stringō|t=to bind tight]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) The learned word replaced the inherited form “destroit” “extent of a jurisdiction” (1235), still used in this sense by La Fontaine; the same word survives as [[détroit]] “strait”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1421, and the TLFi to 1480, in an ordinance, in the sense “jurisdiction, area over which a judge has authority”.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In this sense the word went out of use in France after the Académie's 1798 edition (''un juge ne peut juger hors de son district''), as did the figurative ''ne pas être de mon district'' “not my concern” (Mme de Sévigné, before 1696).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) The sense “limited territory” appears in Cotgrave (1611) and spread from 1780 (Raynal);^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the decree of 12 November 1789 made the ''district'' a subdivision of the new departments, roughly the later ''arrondissement'', abolished in 1795.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ In modern France a ''district urbain'' (1959) is a grouping of communes forming one urban area.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) The phrase ''district fédéral'', for the territory of a federal capital such as Washington, is a calque of English;^(DHLF 1992) in Switzerland a ''district'' is a subdivision of a canton.^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1235 – ''Destroit'' “jurisdiction”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1421 – ''District''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1480 – “Jurisdiction”, in an ordinance.^(TLFi)

+ * 1611 – “Limited territory”, in Cotgrave.^(TLFi)

+ * 1789 – A subdivision of the French department.^(TLFi)

+ * 1959 – ''District urbain''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|district]], administrative subdivision (of a country, a Swiss canton).^(Larousse)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(France)'' ''District urbain'': a grouping of neighbouring communes.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(history)'' A subdivision of a French department (1790–1795).^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(obsolete)'' The extent of a jurisdiction.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[détroit]]

+ * [[étreindre]]

+ * [[strict]]

+ * [[la|distringō]]

+ * [[en|district]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}