portrait French · revision 17659

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1170, Chrétien de Troyes, Erec|origins=la trahō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /pɔʁ.tʁɛ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''portrait''' ''m'' (plural portraits)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|portret]] and [[m|fro|pourtrait]] (about 1175); ''portrait'' from the 13th century;^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989) ''portraict'' and ''pourtraict'' in the 16th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is the past participle of the old verb [[m|fr|portraire|t=to draw, depict]] (about 1130), used as a noun.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|13/2, 181a) The verb is formed from [[pour]], used as an intensive prefix, and [[traire]] “to draw”, in its old special sense “to sketch”, which [[tirer]] also had: compare “tirer le portrait”.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Wiktionary traces the verb to [[la|prōtrahō|t=to draw forth]].^(Wiktionary) The verb was called dated by the 17th-century dictionaries and went out of use in the 18th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In Chrétien de Troyes's ''Erec'' (about 1170) ''portret'' means a drawing or representation.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word seems first to have meant any drawing or pictorial representation, a sense still found in some writers.^(DHLF 1992) With the flowering of the genre it came to mean the representation of a particular person by painting or engraving (1538, Estienne), and, from 1550 (Du Bellay) a description of a person in words.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Rabelais (1536) uses it for an image or likeness, and Corneille (1635) for a perfect likeness of someone.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) In Rabelais (1552) it also means the face.^(TLFi)

+

+ Richelet records the ''portrait chargé'', a caricature, in 1680; the ''portrait-charge'' is in the Goncourts (1867), the police ''portrait parlé'' in 1963 and the ''portrait-robot'', an identikit picture, in 1964.^(TLFi) Derivatives include [[portraitiste]] (1693) and [[portraiturer]] (1872).^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1130 – The verb ''portraire''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1170 – ''Portret'' in Chrétien's ''Erec''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1538 – Estienne: a painted or engraved likeness.^(TLFi)

+ * 1550 – Du Bellay: a portrait in words.^(TLFi)

+ * 1635 – Corneille: a perfect likeness.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1680 – Richelet: ''portrait chargé''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1693 – ''Portraitiste''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1964 – ''Portrait-robot''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|portrait]], a representation of a person, especially the face, by drawing, painting, engraving or photography: ''portrait en pied''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A description of a person or thing in words: ''faire le portrait de quelqu'un''.^(Wiktionary)^(TLFi)

+ # A perfect likeness of someone.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(familiar)'' The face: ''refaire le portrait à quelqu'un''.^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Portrait-robot'': an [[m|en|identikit]] picture.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(printing, computing)'' Portrait format, as opposed to landscape.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[portraitiste]]

+ * [[portraiturer]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[portraire]]

+ * [[autoportrait]]

+ * [[traire]]

+ * [[en|portrait]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}