norme French · revision 15951

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure|origins=la nōrma}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /nɔʁm/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''norme''' ''f'' (plural normes)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|nōrma|t=carpenter's square; rule]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|7, 190b) a technical word also used figuratively for a rule of conduct, often together with “regula” (see [[règle]]).^(DHLF 1992) Rey thinks it was probably borrowed, through Etruscan, from [[grc|γνώμων|tr=gnṓmōn|t=carpenter's square]] (see [[gnomon]]).^(DHLF 1992)^(Etymonline)

+

+ [[en|norm]] (1821) is from French “norme”;^(Etymonline) conversely the sense “usual state” spread under the influence of English sociology.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Benoît de Sainte-Maure's ''Roman de Troie'' (about 1165) has ''mettre norme a'' “to settle (a matter)”;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Brunetto Latini (1284) uses ''norme'' for “rule”.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ French kept only the abstract sense, “rule”; the word was rare until the 19th century and is absent from the dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) About 1865–1867 (Proudhon, Hugo) it took the sense “usual, regular state”, without a value judgement, partly after English ''norm'' as used by sociologists.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

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+ In the 20th century it became a technical term for the specification a product must meet (about 1920, ''norme NF''), and a term of mathematics (about 1930), linguistics, sociology and law, combining the ideas of the majority model and of the rule to follow.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) ''Normatif'' is recorded by Littré (1868).^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1165 – ''Mettre norme a'' in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^(TLFi)

+ * 1284 – “Rule”, in Brunetto Latini.^(TLFi)

+ * 1821 – English ''norm''.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1867 – “Usual state”, in Hugo.^(TLFi)

+ * 1868 – ''Normatif''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1932 – A technical specification.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|norm]], rule, standard: ''norme juridique'', ''norme sociale''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # The norm, usual state: ''rester dans la norme'', ''hors norme'': exceptional.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A technical standard: ''conforme aux normes'', ''norme NF''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(mathematics)'' A norm.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[normatif]]

+ * [[normer]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[normal]]

+ * [[énorme]]

+ * [[la|nōrma]]

+ * [[en|norm]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}