fauteuil French · revision 16837

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1100, Chanson de Roland (faldestoed)|origins=frk *faldistōl}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /fo.tœj/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''fauteuil''' ''m'' (plural fauteuils)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|faldestoel]] (''faldestoed'' in the ''Chanson de Roland''), [[m|fro|faudestuel]], ''faudesteuil'', ''fauldetueil'' was still in dictionaries in the early 17th century, and ''fauteuil'' is first found in 1589.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|faldestoel]], [[bor|frk|*faldistōl|t=folding seat]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(FEW|15/2, 103b)^(Wiktionary) a compound reconstructed from [[goh|faldstuol]] (whence [[de|Faltstuhl]]), [[en|faldstool]] (1050) and [[la-med|faldistolium]] (about 1100).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Its parts correspond to [[m|de|falten|t=to fold]] and [[m|de|Stuhl|t=seat]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992) The ⟨l⟩ vocalized and the word contracted from [[m|fro|faudesteuil]] to the modern form.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Romance languages borrowed it from French: [[it|faldistorio]], and through Church Latin it also gave French [[faldistoire]] (1668), its doublet.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ''Chanson de Roland'' (about 1100) has ''Un faldestoed i ont fait tout d'or mer'', “they set up a folding seat there of pure gold”.^(Littré 1873)^(TLFi) It was a folding chair, richly decorated, carried on journeys by kings, bishops and lords.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle French the word was often split up as ''faux d'estueil'' (1396) or ''faux deteil'' (1428), a folk etymology that shows its origin was forgotten; it named a ceremonial seat that was easy to carry.^(DHLF 1992) It stayed a court seat until the early 18th century, and the modern sense of an armchair is first clearly defined in 1671.^(DHLF 1992) Under Louis XIV the chair became a bourgeois piece of furniture, and the king supplied the Académie with its forty ''fauteuils''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ The seat of authority gave ''tenir le fauteuil'' “to preside” (La Bruyère, 1688), and a seat at the Académie (about 1720, Fontenelle).^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) From racing slang came ''dans un fauteuil'' “effortlessly” (1898) and ''arriver comme dans un fauteuil'' (about 1889).^(TLFi)^(BHVF)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1100 – ''Faldestoed'', ''Chanson de Roland''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1165–70 – ''Faudestuel'', Chrétien de Troyes's ''Erec et Enide''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1396 – The folk spelling ''faux d'estueil''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1589 – The form ''fauteuil'', in an inventory of Catherine de' Medici's furniture.^(TLFi)

+ * 1671 – The modern armchair is explicitly defined.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1688 – ''Tenir le fauteuil'' “to preside”, La Bruyère.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1889 – ''Arriver comme dans un fauteuil'' in racing.^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|armchair]]: a seat for one person with a back and arms, ''fauteuil roulant'', a [[m|en|wheelchair]], ''fauteuil à bascule'', a rocking chair.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A seat in a theatre or cinema: ''fauteuil d'orchestre''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # A seat of office, especially one of the forty seats of the Académie française.^(GLLF 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # The chair of an assembly; its presidency.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''(familiar)'' ''Dans un fauteuil'', ''comme dans un fauteuil'': easily, without effort.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[faldistoire]]

+ * [[en|faldstool]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}