unité French · revision 17622

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1120, Oxford Psalter|origins=la ūnus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /y.ni.te/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''unité''' ''f'' (plural unités)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|ūnitās|t=oneness, unity; sameness]], derived from [[m|la|ūnus|t=one]], the source of [[un]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|14, 48b)^(Grand Robert 2005) Cognate with [[pro|unitat]], [[es|unidad]] and [[it|unità]].^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In the Athanasian Creed of the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century) it is the oneness of God: ''Deu en Trinité, e la Trinité en unité''.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word first named the state of what forms one organic whole; the learned sense “quality of what has no parts” appears in Brunetto Latini about 1265.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) About 1370 Oresme uses it for the element of arithmetic from which numbers are formed, whence the number one, and about 1375 it meant harmony or agreement between people.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ In the 17th century Guez de Balzac (1638) applied it to the coherence of the parts of a literary work, and Corneille (1660) wrote of the unities of action, place and day, the rule of classical drama derived from Aristotle by Scaliger;^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) ''unité de temps'' is in Furetière in 1690.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) In mathematics and measurement ''unité'' became a quantity taken as a standard of comparison; from 1680 it also named the units below ten in a number.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873) Later senses include a military formation and an element of a structured whole.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1120 – In the Oxford Psalter, of the oneness of God.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini: what has no parts.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1370 – Oresme: the arithmetical unit.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1638 – Guez de Balzac: coherence of a literary work.^(TLFi)

+ * 1660 – Corneille's three unities of drama.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1680 – The units of a number, as against tens.^(TLFi)

+ * 1933 – ''Unité de radium''.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The character of what is one and single; [[m|en|oneness]]: ''l'unité divine''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The character of what forms a coherent whole; [[m|en|unity]], [[m|en|harmony]]: ''unité d'une œuvre'', ''unité de vues''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(literature)'' ''Unité d'action, de lieu, de temps'': the three unities of classical drama.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(mathematics)'' The number one; in the plural, the [[m|en|ones]] of a number.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # A quantity taken as a standard of [[m|en|measurement]]: ''unité de longueur'', ''système d'unités''.^(Littré 1873)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # A single element of a whole or of a series; an item: ''prix à l'unité''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # ''(military)'' A formation of troops, ships or aircraft.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(computing)'' ''Unité centrale'': the central processing unit.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[unitaire]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[unir]]

+ * [[un]]

+ * [[la|ūnitās]]

+ * [[en|unity]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}