Somewhere between sugaring off season and strawberry season, we see them come back every spring with the good weather. The bustards have not yet finished migrating than the dictionaries The little illustrated Larousse and Little Robert arrive with the new words of their annual edition. True to form, the two lexicography multinationals are therefore announcing a batch of just over 300 new items: from « covid » (suffering from covid) to « vaccinodrome » (vaccination center) via « grossophobia ». and “glottophobia” (discrimination based on linguistic traits, accents).
I have always believed that the media coverage of these additions of words did not make much sense, but it is nevertheless interesting to consider the proposals of the two teams together. The similarities, like the differences, speak volumes about the way lexicographers work. As I explained in my column on « iel » (officially introduced in the Robert online last fall and now in print), the ‘new words’ exercise responds to important business imperatives. Dictionaries are like cars: the 2023 edition comes out more than six months before the Bye-bye 2022. And the number of novelties is guided by the space that can be freed up on the model without costing the shareholders of Hachette Livre and Lagardère too much (Larousse) and Vivendi (Robert).
These two great dictionaries of the French language are first of all French works, or more exactly “of French” (capital letter). What they present is the reality of written French in France as seen by French people. That said, nothing prevents other Francophones from having a good time. For my part, I fell in love with two beautiful French expressions that transpose wonderfully into the Quebec reality, such as « having the sons touch each other » (being crazy) in the Robert and « thermal sieve » (poorly insulated housing), according to the Larousse.
Novelties entering dictionaries are not necessarily very “new”. « Acetaminophen », for example, has been sold in pharmacies in Canada since 1963. The word « stylometry » (statistical study of literary styles) dates back to 1898. As for « eco-anxiety », the sentiment was attested to in the Quebec newspaper The sun from 2008. This type of delay is normal: if 20,000 to 30,000 words are created each year in the French-speaking world, only 1% of them will be “consecrated” to the dictionary. The others will remain confidential, local or fall back into oblivion.
An art, not a science
Among the 300 novelties presented in the 2023 editions of the Little Robert and Little Illustrated Larousseonly four are found in the two works : “labné” (a kind of cheese from Lebanon and Syria), “stylometry”, “woke” and “wokisme”. This low cross-checking rate underlines once again that these commercial dictionaries, which render an immense service, are not scientific enterprises. If so, their samplings of novelties would match up more.
In reality, the words are selected by a necessarily impressionistic process. And since it is a « French » dictionary, it is not insignificant that these common impressions concern food (labné), language facts (stylometry) and fashionable ideology (woke, wokisme ).
The linguist Bernard Cerquiglini, who is a scientific adviser at Larousse, also signs a beautiful text on the feminization of the French language where he rightly underlines the little « tinkered » side of the big dictionaries. He points out the haphazard way in which feminization has entered usage and dictionaries in France, giving the example of military ranks: « the captain » (as an officer instead of the old meaning of « the captain’s wife » ) appeared in the Larousse from 2003, then followed other ranks such as « the corporal, the adjutant, the colonel, the rear-admiral », etc., to finish with « the soldier » in 2013.
This testifies to the French « anything » in terms of the standard of language. Bernard Cerquiglini rightly salutes Quebecers, who largely adopted these changes en bloc from the beginning of the 1980s and then waited for a whole generation for the French to reconcile with their time.
Who will be the most woke?
Among the differences between the two lists of novelties, I was struck by the considerable place of Canada (read: Quebec) in the new nomenclature of the Robert. Some terms are presented as being « foreign », for example « benefit » (as in fundraising evening), « spindle » (for knitting), « mosquito repellent », « haulout » (shore where seals congregate), » moistex », « ouaté » (fleece) or « planchodrome ». But there are also three others, in the list of general terms, which are actually of Canadian origin, namely “acetaminophen”, “eco-anxiety” and “banana” (royal).
the Larousse has a little more assertive Franco-French side, bordering on tanning. Administrative concepts such as “State medical aid” or “Meilleur Ouvrier de France” frankly do not deserve an entry in the dictionary. The same goes for terms in French political jargon – “enfermistes” (who favor strict confinement), “reassuring” (who speak reassuringly) or “frugaux” (European countries favorable to budgetary rigor) – which are not without doubt that fads.
The four common words mentioned above (labne, stylometry, woke, wokism) also show important philosophical differences between the two institutions. Little Robert is very precise on the etymology, the origin of the word and its date of attestation. Its orientation is more literary and linguistic, but its definitions do not always have the precision of those of the Little Illustrated Laroussewhich aims to be more encyclopedic and technical.
For example, « stylometry », defined on the side of the Robert as « the statistical study of the facts of style », could relate to fashion. the Larousse is much clearer that the term comes from linguistics and applies to literary styles.
Along the same lines, I was a bit surprised that the Robert attributes a pejorative side to the terms « woke » and « wokisme » in French. the Larousse is more neutral: it first describes the current of thought that these words designate, then clearly distinguishes it from the way it is interpreted in France.
As if to counterbalance this posture, the Robert introduces “iel” (new neuter pronoun merging “he” and “she”) into its nomenclature (presenting it as rare). On this point, the Larousse abstains. Bernard Cerquiglini describes “iel” as a “militant innovation” which does not yet shape usage.
My dear ! Would we be woke at Robert ?
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