univers French · revision 17524

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1530, Marot|origins=la ūniversus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /y.ni.vɛʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''univers''' ''m'' (countable and uncountable, invariable)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ As a noun it is [[bor|la|ūniversum|t=the whole; the universe]], the neuter used as a noun of [[m|la|ūniversus|t=whole, entire]], literally “turned so as to form one whole”, from [[m|la|ūnus|t=one]] and [[m|la|versus]], the past participle of [[m|la|vertō|t=to turn]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|14, 53a) The Latin noun translated [[grc|τὸ ὅλον|tr=tò hólon|t=the whole]].^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Before it, an adjective of the same form, “whole, entire”, from the same Latin adjective, was used from the 12th to the 16th century, as in phrases for “the whole world” (about 1175) and in Rabelais's “universal empire”;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873) Rey thinks it helped the noun to spread.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The noun appears about 1530 in Marot (''par l'univers, le monde me lira''), meaning the whole inhabited earth.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Ronsard (1550) and the 1553 Bible ''l'univers'' meant the people of the earth, a sense common in the 17th century and now dated.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Ronsard also has it for all that exists (1550), and Montaigne (1588) for all the systems of planets and stars.^(TLFi) The idea of the universe changed with astronomy, from a system centred on the earth or the sun to the immense, expanding universe of modern physics (''expansion de l'Univers'', 1948).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ Figuratively it has meant a closed world of feelings or ideas (Ronsard 1552, rare before Marivaux in 1722), the place where one lives (La Fontaine, 1671), and what is everything to someone (1758).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In logic, ''univers du discours'' (1932) was taken from English ''universe of discourse''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1175 – Adjective in ''universe monde'', in Thomas of Kent.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1530 – The noun, in Marot.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1550 – “Mankind” and “all that exists”, in Ronsard.^(TLFi)

+ * 1588 – The systems of stars and planets, in Montaigne.^(TLFi)

+ * 1671 – One's own world, in La Fontaine.^(TLFi)

+ * 1932 – ''Univers du discours'' in logic.^(TLFi)

+ * 1948 – ''Expansion de l'Univers''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|universe]]: everything that exists; in science, all matter in space and time: ''l'expansion de l'Univers''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # The world, the societies of the earth: ''un citoyen de l'univers''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(dated)'' The surface of the earth; the people living on it.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ # One's own world, the setting or field to which one's life is limited.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(logic, statistics)'' The whole set of elements under study: ''univers du discours''.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[universel]]

+ * [[université]]

+ * [[un]]

+ * [[la|ūniversus]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}