style French · revision 17640

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1290, Walter of Bibbesworth|origins=la stilus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /stil/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''style''' ''m'' (plural styles)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|estile]] (about 1280–90), ''stile'' (14th century); the learned spelling ''style'' from the late 14th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005) The Académie wrote ''stile'' and ''style'' in 1694 and 1718, ''style'' from 1740.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|stilus|t=pointed stake; writing stylus; manner of writing]].^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|12, 266b) The ⟨y⟩ comes from a false connection with [[grc|στῦλος|tr=stûlos|t=column]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) In Latin the word named any pointed stem, especially the iron or bone point for writing on wax tablets; in rhetoric it came to mean a written exercise and a manner of writing, then a manner or custom in general.^(DHLF 1992) Littré instead took the Latin word from the Greek one.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ About 1290 Walter of Bibbesworth uses ''estile'' for a manner of acting; in law ''stille'' was a customary rule of procedure (1346).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From a manner of acting the word passed to a manner of speaking (about 1393, ''Ménagier de Paris'') and, in the 16th century, a manner of writing (1536), with ''hault stille'' and ''stille bas''.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) In the 17th century it was applied to the fine arts (1699, Roger de Piles), the character of a language (1671) and the general character of the works of a country or period (Voltaire, 1734).^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) In grammar ''style direct'' appears in Flaubert (1870) and ''style indirect'' in 1913.^(TLFi)

+

+ The Latin concrete sense was borrowed about 1380 for the writing stylus, whence the gnomon of a sundial (1562), a surgical instrument (1672) and, in botany, the style of a flower.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary) Derivatives include [[stylé]] (14th century), [[styliste]] (1845) and [[styliser]] (late 19th century).^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1290 – ''Estile'' “manner of acting”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1346 – A rule of legal procedure.^(TLFi)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+ * c. 1380 – ''Stile'', a writing stylus.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * c. 1393 – A manner of speaking.^(TLFi)

+ * 1536 – A manner of writing.^(TLFi)

+ * 1562 – The gnomon of a sundial.^(TLFi)

+ * 1699 – In the fine arts.^(TLFi)

+ * 1734 – Voltaire: the style of a nation's writers.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A manner of writing or expressing oneself, ''figure de style'', a figure of speech.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The characteristic manner of an artist, a school or a period: ''style gothique'', ''meubles de style''.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # A personal manner of behaving or dressing; [[m|en|flair]], elegance: ''avoir du style''.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(grammar)'' ''Style direct, indirect'': direct, indirect speech.^(TLFi)

+ # The [[m|en|gnomon]] of a sundial, ''(history)'' a [[m|en|stylus]] for writing on tablets.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(botany)'' The [[m|en|style]] of a flower.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[styliser]]

+ * [[styliste]]

+ * [[stylistique]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[stylet]]

+ * [[la|stilus]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Wiktionary also records a literary ''style'' meaning “pillar, column”, from Greek [[m|grc|στῦλος|tr=stûlos]].^(Wiktionary) The Grand Robert gives the stylus and gnomon senses a numbered entry of their own.^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}