besoin French · revision 16371

+ {{infobox|confidence=probable|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1050, Vie de saint Alexis (bozoin)|origins=frk *bisunni}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /bə.zwɛ̃/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''besoin''' ''m'' (plural besoins)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French ''bozoin'' (1050), ''busun'' (about 1090, Anglo-Norman), ''besoing'' (about 1130), the usual form until the 17th century, ''besoin'' is found from the 13th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|besoing]], [[inh|frk|*bisunni|t=care]], a neuter beside the feminine [[frk|*bisunnia]] that gave [[besogne]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|17, 275b) The Frankish word was formed with the prefix [[m|frk|bi-]] “by, about”, which came to be only an intensive, and [[m|frk|*sunni]] “care”, the source of [[soin]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) Wiktionary allows that it may have passed through a Vulgar Latin “*bisonium”; a Medieval Latin “bisonium” is found in 12th-century Italy.^(Wiktionary)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Another view makes it a back-formation from the verb [[besogner]], Rey prefers the Frankish noun because “besoin” is so early.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(DHLF 1992) Littré, writing before this was settled, hesitated between the Germanic [[m|frk|bi-]] and the Romance pejorative prefix [[bes-]].^(Littré 1873) Meyer-Lübke compared a Gothic “bisunja” “care”.^(REW 1935)

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+ Cognate with [[it|bisogno]] and [[pro|bezonh]], the latter borrowed from French according to Bloch and Wartburg.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It is first found about 1050 in the ''Vie de saint Alexis'' in the phrase ''être bozoins'' “to be necessary”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Until the 17th century ''besoin'' and ''besogne'' shared one range of meanings, the general idea of need or necessity.^(DHLF 1992) ''Besoin'' named a pressing situation or crisis (about 1090), distress (about 1155) and, from 1549, poverty.^(DHLF 1992) ''Avoir besoin de'' dates from 1080 and ''au besoin'' “if need be” from about 1175.^(DHLF 1992)

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+ The plural ''les besoins'', what one needs to live, is recorded from 1665, and the euphemism ''faire ses besoins'' from 1743.^(DHLF 1992)^(BHVF) By metonymy the word named a thing one cannot do without (1721, Montesquieu), and, from 1704 also a moral or intellectual craving.^(DHLF 1992) In the south-west of France ''faire besoin'' still means “to be needed” or “to be missing”.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1050 – ''Être bozoins'' “to be necessary” in the ''Vie de saint Alexis''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1080 – ''Avoir besoin de'' in the ''Chanson de Roland''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+ * c. 1175 – ''Au besoin'' “in case of need”.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1549 – Used for poverty, want.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1665 – ''Les besoins'', the necessities of life.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1743 – ''Faire ses besoins''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|need]]: a demand arising from nature or social life: ''besoin de nourriture'', ''besoin d'affection''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''Les besoins'': what a person needs to live: ''subvenir aux besoins de sa famille''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Avoir besoin de'': to need.^(Wiktionary)^(Littré 1873)

+ # [[m|en|want]], [[m|en|poverty]]: ''être dans le besoin''.^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(euphemism)'' ''Faire ses besoins'': to relieve oneself.^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Au besoin'', ''si besoin est'': if necessary.^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[besogneux]]

+ * [[besogne]]

+ * [[soin]]

+ * [[soigner]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}