au-delà French · revision 17674

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=1538|origins=la illāc}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /o.d(ə).la/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''au-delà''' (adverb); '''au-delà''' ''m'', plural ''au-delàs'' (noun)^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fr|à|delà]], with the article contracted into [[au]].^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992) The second element (about 1160) is formed from [[de]] and [[là]], which comes from [[la|illāc|t=that way, there]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(FEW|4, 547a) The noun is a conversion of the adverb.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The adverbial phrase ''au delà'' “further, on the other side” is recorded in 1538.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ ''Au delà'' replaced the older ''delà'' and ''par delà'' in the spatial sense, and developed the figurative value “still more, still better” (Pascal).^(DHLF 1992) Like ''en deçà'' it formed the prepositional phrase ''au delà de'' (about 1550), local and figurative, as in Montaigne's ''au dela de nos forces'' (1580–92).^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+

+ The noun ''l'au-delà'' first appears in Amiel's ''Journal'' (1866) and is almost entirely limited to “the other world”, beside ''ici-bas'' and ''là-haut''; it is the only use in which the hyphen is compulsory.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)^(BHVF) The Larousse recorded it in 1929.^(GLLF 1989)^(BHVF)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1160 – ''Delà''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1538 – The adverbial phrase ''au delà''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1550 – ''Au delà de''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1580–92 – ''Au dela de nos forces'' in Montaigne.^(TLFi)

+ * 1866 – The noun ''l'au-delà'' in Amiel.^(TLFi)^(BHVF)

+ * 1929 – The noun in the Larousse.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # Further, [[m|en|beyond]].^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Au-delà de'': on the other side of (''au-delà de la frontière''); figuratively, beyond, more than (''au-delà de sa compétence'').^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''L'au-delà'': the next world, the [[m|en|afterlife]]: ''dans l'au-delà''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[delà]]

+ * [[par-delà]]

+ * [[en deçà]]

+ * [[là]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Vérité au-deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà'' is a line of Pascal's on the relativity of custom.^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}