frontière French · revision 38605

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 1213, Faits des Romains|origins=la frōns}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /fʁɔ̃.tjɛʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''frontière''' ''f'' (plural frontières)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fr|front|-ière]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|3, 821a) The modern sense probably comes from phrases meaning “frontier country” (1405), a country guarded by an army or a fortress facing the enemy, rather than from the feminine of the Middle French adjective [[m|frm|frontier|t=bordering]];^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) Bloch and Wartburg, however, derive it from that adjective.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The noun [[front]] is inherited from [[la|frōns|t=forehead]].^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ Compare [[ca|frontera]], [[es|frontera]], [[pt|fronteira]] and [[it|frontiera]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ In the ''Faits des Romains'' (about 1213) a ''frontiere'' is the front line of an army.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In 1292 the word was used of a fortified place facing the enemy.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) Littré explains the shift: ''faire frontiere'' meant to draw up in battle order, and since this was done above all on the edges of a country, the word came to mean the limit between states.^(Littré 1873) That sense appears in Froissart about 1360 and in Eustache Deschamps at the end of the 14th century.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ By extension it was said of the limits of a region and of language boundaries (1770), and figuratively of a line dividing abstract or concrete domains (1700).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) The compound [[garde-frontière]] is recorded in 1854, and in Swiss French it is a calque of German for a member of the border police.^(DHLF 1992) [[frontalier|alt=Frontalier]] (1730) is not formed on it but borrowed from Provençal.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1213 – “Front of an army” in the ''Faits des Romains''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1292 – “Fortified place facing the enemy”.^(TLFi)

+ * c. 1360 – Froissart, of the limit between two states.^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1405 – ''Pays de frontiere''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1700 – Figurative “limit”.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1770 – Of the limits of a region.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1854 – ''Garde-frontière''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|boundary]] of a territory; in particular the official line separating two states, a [[m|en|border]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''Frontière naturelle'': a border formed by a river, a mountain range or the sea.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # The limit of a region or area: ''frontière linguistique''.^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A line between two domains or states.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi)

+ # ''(in apposition)'' On the border: ''ville frontière''.^(Littré 1873)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[garde-frontière]]

+ * [[transfrontalier]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[front]]

+ * [[frontalier]]

+ * [[affronter]]

+ * [[la|frōns]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}