avenir French · revision 17161

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1427 (advenir)|origins=la veniō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /av.niʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''avenir''' ''m'' (plural avenirs)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Advenir'' (1427), ''avenir'' from 1647.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the noun use of the phrase “temps advenir” “future time” (1295), later “temps à venir”, that is [[à]] and [[venir]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(GLLF 1989)^(Larousse)^(Wiktionary) Rey distinguishes it from an older noun “avenir” “success” (Froissart), from the verb “avenir” “to succeed”, which goes back to [[la|adveniō|t=to arrive]] and was later Latinised as [[advenir]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) Littré took the noun for the infinitive of that verb used as a noun.^(Littré 1873) “Venir” is from [[m|la|veniō]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ ''Advenir'' is first found as a noun in 1427, the time not yet come, opposed to the past and the present; the source phrase ''temps advenir'' is recorded in 1295.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ ''À l'advenir'' (end of the 16th century), now ''à l'avenir'' (1636), means “from now on”.^(DHLF 1992) In Corneille (1662) it meant posterity.^(DHLF 1992) From the mid-18th century, as in Rousseau's ''Confessions'', ''un avenir'' or ''l'avenir de qqn'' is the future situation of a person or a project, for which one had said ''bonne'' or ''mauvaise'' [[aventure]].^(DHLF 1992) Future success is from the beginning of the 19th century (Académie, 1835), as in ''avoir de l'avenir'' and ''sans avenir''.^(DHLF 1992) After 1980 it increasingly competes with ''futur''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1295 – ''Temps advenir''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1427 – ''Advenir'', the future.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1636 – ''À l'avenir''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1647 – The spelling ''avenir''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1662 – Posterity, Corneille.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1835 – ''Avoir de l'avenir'', Académie.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|future]]: ''dans un proche avenir'', ''penser à l'avenir''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # The future events; one's future situation: ''l'avenir de nos enfants'', ''un brillant avenir''.^(Larousse)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # Future success: ''un métier d'avenir'', ''avoir de l'avenir'', ''sans avenir''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # Posterity, future generations: ''l'avenir le jugera''.^(GLLF 1989)^(Larousse)

+ # ''À l'avenir'': from now on, in future.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[venir]]

+ * [[advenir]]

+ * [[aventure]]

+ * [[futur]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ In old legal usage an ''avenir'' (1680, ''à venir'') was a summons by which one solicitor called the other party's solicitor to appear in court.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Grand Robert 2005) The verb ''avenir'' “to happen” is now written [[advenir]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}