“The youngest son of Charles III publishes a vitriolic book”
, can we read in some newspapers following the publication of the work
Le Suppléant
(Spare) at the beginning of January.
At first glance, we believe in a shell.
Puine?
This word, although rare, does exist.
It dates back to the 12th century, composed of the words
“then”
and
“born”
, past participle of being born, as can be read in the Trésor de la langue française.
Therefore, the
"next"
is the child born after a sibling.
There may be several siblings, that is, children born after the eldest.
The writing returns to the etymology of words related to the vocabulary of the family.
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"next child"
, the word
"eldest"
, which designates the first of the family, comes from the old French
"ainz born"
, itself derived from the Latin
"ante natus"
(
"before born"
).
"Puîné"
stems from this etymology since it also comes from the Latin
"post natus"
(
"born after"
).
However, the use of this last word is rare because it is considered aged and left to the detriment of the word
"cadet"
.
It is a borrowing from the Occitan Gascon
"capdet"
, which corresponds to the Provençal
"capdel"
(from the Latin
"capitellus"
, diminutive of
"caput"
for
"head"
).
“Cadet”
therefore means etymologically
“head, chief”
.
But then why designate the second as the
“youngest”
of the family?
Read alsoDo you (really) know the rule with euphonic letters?
The answer lies in a historical anecdote.
Indeed, according to what can be read in
The 1001 Favorite Expressions of the French
by Georges Planelles, the Gascon captains, who came to serve voluntarily in the French armies in the 16th century, were the younger children of noble families.
Hence the word
"cadet"
denoted the
"gentleman serving as a low officer or soldier"
(hence the famous
"Cadets de Gascogne"
) which eventually supplanted the use of the word
"puîné"
to refer to the second in the family.
As for the word
"youngest"
to qualify the last child of a sibling, its origin is in... the Bible.
In the book of Genesis, the biblical character Benjamin is the thirteenth and last child of Jacob and the second and last son of his wife Rachel.
But it is only since the 18th century that we began to adopt this name in the French language for the last of the family.