construire French · revision 16833

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=13th century (grammar); 1466 (to build)|origins=la cōnstruō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kɔ̃s.tʁɥiʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''construire'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Earlier ''construer'' (about 1290, ''Livre Roisin'').^(GLLF 1989)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|cōnstruō|t=to heap up in layers; to build; to construe]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|2, 1087a) from [[m|la|com-]] and [[m|la|struō|t=to arrange, pile up]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873) The Latin word was given its French form after [[détruire]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989) Rey suggests the Latin stem may belong to the Indo-European root [[ine-pro|*ster-|t=to spread out]], whence the original idea of piling in layers.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Wiktionary describes it as inherited from Old French [[m|fro|construir]], itself borrowed from Latin.^(Wiktionary) Cognate with [[pro|construire]], [[es|construir]] and [[it|costruire]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It first appears in a 13th-century grammatical text: ''le substantif se construit bien par soi, et li adjectif nïent'', “the noun is construed well by itself, and the adjective not”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The grammatical use, first reflexive, also became transitive (before 1530, ''construire une phrase'').^(DHLF 1992) The current sense “to build” is found from 1466, first figuratively in Pierre Michault's ''Doctrinal du temps présent'';^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) Furetière (1690) records the geometrical sense of constructing a figure.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ The noun [[construction]] (1130) is borrowed from Latin ''constructio''; it has all the senses of the verb, and, from 1635 names a thing built.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) [[constructeur]] (14th century) spread in the second half of the 17th century in concrete senses.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1130 – The noun [[construction]].^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 13th century – Grammatical use.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1290 – The form ''construer''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1466 – “To build”, Pierre Michault.^(TLFi)

+ * 1549 – [[reconstruire]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1690 – Geometrical sense, Furetière.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To [[m|en|build]], put up according to a plan: ''construire une maison, une route, un pont''; absolutely, ''permis de construire'', planning permission.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # To make a complex object; to [[m|en|manufacture]]: ''construire des automobiles''.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # To make up an abstract system or work: a theory, a novel, an argument.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(grammar)'' To arrange words in a sentence, ''se construire avec'', to take a certain construction.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(geometry)'' To draw a figure.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[construction]]

+ * [[constructeur]]

+ * [[constructif]]

+ * [[reconstruire]]

+ * [[reconstruction]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[détruire]]

+ * [[structure]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}