comité French · revision 17680

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1652, Du Gard, Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres|origins=la committō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /kɔ.mi.te/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''comité''' ''m'' (plural comités)^(Wiktionary)

+ First written ''committé'' (1652); ''comité'' from 1690 (Furetière).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Grand Robert 2005)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|en|committee]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|18, 45b) The English word was first a legal term meaning a person to whom something is entrusted (1495), then a political one (1621), a small number of chosen people meeting to deliberate on a question.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) It is probably formed with the suffix [[m|en|-ee]] on [[m|en|commit|t=to entrust]], from [[la|committō]], the source of French [[commettre]]; the DHLF also allows a direct borrowing of the old French past participle of that verb, and Littré calls it an Anglo-French participle.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ It first appears in 1652 in a news sheet from London, ''Nouvelles ordinaires de Londres'', in an English context.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Close in meaning to [[commission]], of the same origin, the word was at first kept for English affairs;^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Saint-Simon (1717) notes that ''comité'' was used because people spoke only in the English way.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) It spread in the mid-18th century (''comité secret'', 1750) and under the Revolution, in many phrases such as the ''Comité de salut public'' (1792).^(DHLF 1992) The unexplained loss of one ⟨m⟩ cut it off from ''commis'', ''commission'' and ''commissaire''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ It was applied to new fields: the theatre (''comité'', 1782, ''comité de lecture'', 1799), then publishing, and firms (''comité d'entreprise'', 1945).^(DHLF 1992) The figurative ''petit comité'', a small private gathering, is found in Madame du Deffand's letters (1710).^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1652 – ''Committé'', in an English context.^(TLFi)

+ * 1690 – Furetière records ''comité''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1710 – ''Petit comité'' in Madame du Deffand.^(TLFi)

+ * 1750 – ''Comité secret''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1792 – The ''Comité de salut public''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1799 – ''Comité de lecture'' in the theatre.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1945 – ''Comité d'entreprise''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|committee]], a small group chosen from a larger body to deal with certain matters or give advice: ''comité exécutif'', ''comité des fêtes'', ''comité de soutien''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Comité de lecture'': a reading committee that chooses texts for publication or the stage.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Comité d'entreprise'': a [[m|en|works council]] of employees' representatives.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # ''En petit comité'': among close friends, in a small private group.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[commission]]

+ * [[commettre]]

+ * [[en|committee]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ An older ''comité'', the officer who commanded the rowers of a galley, came from [[it|comito]] and Latin [[m|la|comes|t=companion]] (13th century).^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}