What did "delight" mean?
To discover
Digital event of the literary Figaro: "How to get published?"
In the secret of publishing houses ”
Passionate about word games?
Discover the Figaro games app
“
Delight.
To transport to heaven, to remove earth, by the effect of a supernatural power
”, recall the lexicographers of the Trésor de la langue française, thus showing a very old meaning that has left everyday use.
Such a meaning is surprising a priori since today, the one who delights is rather down to earth.
What the kidnapper steals, he takes not to paradise but to his home!
In fact, this definition, which dates from the 12th century, hardly exists except in religious language and in the literature of past centuries.
Read also Ten words that we hear in French-speaking countries
We note it in 1839 at George Sand at the heart of his philosophical novel,
Lélia
: "
We believe, in the country, that every night the spirit of God delighted her on these sublime summits, that an invisible angel carried her on these escarpments. .
"And more recently, in 1942, from the pen of Paul Valéry in Mauvaises Thoughts & Others:"
A cattle that one embarks mows, one of his family wriggling in space, delighted alive in the sky, by the strap and the crane, a
This article is for subscribers only.
You have 58% left to discover.
To cultivate one's freedom is to cultivate one's curiosity.
Continue reading your article for € 1 for 2 months
I ENJOY IT
Already subscribed?
Log in