matière French · revision 38550

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1112, Voyage de saint Brendan|origins=la māter}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ma.tjɛʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''matière''' ''f'' (plural matières)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old French [[m|fro|maiteire]], [[m|fro|mateirie]] (about 1112) and [[m|fro|matire]] (about 1160); ''matière'' is settled from about 1175.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|māteria|t=matter; materials; timber; subject]] (earlier [[m|la|māteriēs]]),^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|6/1, 481b) a word that already had all the French senses.^(DHLF 1992) Bloch and Wartburg note that the form shows very early use: learned circles never stopped using the word.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) In rustic Latin the word meant the substance of the mother trunk, the trunk as producer of shoots, from [[m|la|māter|t=mother]]; it was the hard wood as opposed to bark and leaves, then building timber, then materials of any kind.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007) It rendered [[grc|ὕλη|tr=húlē|t=wood; matter]] in philosophy.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Of the same family, only [[madrier]] (from Provençal) and [[merrain]] keep the sense of building timber.^(Petit Robert 2007) Cognate with [[it|materia]], [[es|materia]], [[pt|matéria]], [[ro|materie]], and with [[es|madera]] and [[pt|madeira]] “wood”.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In the ''Voyage de saint Brendan'' (about 1112) ''maiteire'' is the substance a thing is made of.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Concrete uses spread from the substance of things: matter discharged by the body (about 1256), whence ''matière fécale'' (1538), the substance of a medicine (1280), ''matières grasses'' (1580), the material a craft or industry works (1681, of precious metals for coinage), ''matières premières'' (1771) and ''matière plastique'' (1913).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ From the 12th century the word also took the Latin abstract senses: the subject of a work (about 1125), as in ''entrer en matière'' (1655) and ''table des matières'' (1690); a cause or occasion (about 1175), as in ''donner matière à'' (about 1225); a field of study (1280), first in law, and a school subject (1868).^(DHLF 1992) In scholastic philosophy it was matter as opposed to form (1270), and, from 1155 the substance of bodies perceived by the senses, opposed to spirit.^(DHLF 1992) Modern physics led to ''antimatière'' (1958).^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1112 – ''Maiteire'' in the ''Voyage de saint Brendan''.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * c. 1125 – The subject of a work, in Philippe de Thaon.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1175 – The form ''matière'', in Chrétien de Troyes.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * c. 1256 – Matter discharged by the body.^(TLFi)

+ * 1270 – Matter opposed to form in philosophy.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1655 – ''Entrer en matière''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1690 – ''Table des matières''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1771 – ''Matières premières''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1868 – A school subject.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1913 – ''Matière plastique'' in the ''Larousse mensuel''.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # ''(philosophy, science)'' [[m|en|matter]], the substance that bodies are made of: ''les états de la matière''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Le Robert)

+ # The [[m|en|material]] or substance something is made of: ''matière première'', ''matières grasses''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # Matter discharged by the body: ''matières fécales''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # The subject or content of a work or a speech: ''entrer en matière'', ''table des matières''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # A [[m|en|subject]] of study, a school subject.^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+ # A cause or occasion: ''donner matière à''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''En matière de'': in the field of, as regards.^(Wiktionary)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[antimatière]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[matériau]]

+ * [[matériel]]

+ * [[merrain]]

+ * [[madrier]]

+ * [[mère]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}