épître French · revision 15944

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=1174–1176, Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence|origins=grc ἐπιστολή}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /e.pitʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''épître''' ''f'' (plural épîtres)^(Wiktionary)

+ [[fro|epistle]] (1174–1176), [[m|fro|epistre]] (about 1265, Jean de Meun); ''épître'' from the 17th century.^(GLLF 1989) Palsgrave notes that ''epistre'' was pronounced ''epitre''.^(Littré 1873) It is one of three words in ''-ître'' with a circumflex.^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|epistle]], from [[la|epistula|t=letter; verse epistle]] (also “epistola”),^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|3, 232a) from [[grc|ἐπιστολή|tr=epistolḗ|t=message, letter]], formed from “epi” and a derivative of [[m|grc|στέλλω|tr=stéllō|t=to send]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873) Wiktionary takes it as probably a semi-learned borrowing; the learned [[épistole]] is a doublet.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's ''Vie de saint Thomas'' (1174–1176) has ''epistles'', the letters Becket sent to the king and the bishops.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the late 12th century, as in Christian Latin, it named the letters of the Apostles collected in the New Testament (''les épîtres de saint Paul''), and then the reading from them at Mass.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) It was used of letters of the ancients (''les épîtres de Cicéron'') and, ironically, of any long letter.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Marot (1518–1519) made it the name of a literary genre, the letter in verse, as in Horace and Boileau, and ''épître dédicatoire'' a dedication placed at the head of a book.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1174–1176 – ''Epistles'' “letters”.^(TLFi)

+ * Late 12th century – ''Apistles'', the epistles of Saint Paul.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1265 – ''Epistre'' in Jean de Meun.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1518–1519 – Marot's ''Petite Epistre au Roy''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – The liturgical sense, in Furetière.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A letter (of an ancient author): ''les épîtres de Cicéron'', ''(ironic)'' a long letter.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # An [[m|en|epistle]] of the Apostles; the reading from it at Mass.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A verse letter: ''les Épîtres de Marot'', ''épître dédicatoire'': dedication.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[épistolaire]]

+ * [[épistole]]

+ * [[apôtre]]

+ * [[la|epistula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}