Forty years after they began their quest – and nearly four hundred years after receiving their first commission – the sages of Paris have finally produced a new edition of the perfect French dictionary.
Ninth full edition of French Academy Dictionary was officially presented to President Macron this afternoon in the luxurious setting of the 17th century Collège des Quatre-Nations on the left bank of the Seine.
This is where the 40 wise men and women of the French Academy – the so-called place immortal (immortals) chosen for their contributions to the French language and literature – have met since the body was first created by Cardinal Richelieu in 1635.
Their task at first was “to give certain rules to our language, to make it pure and eloquent” – the goal they set was to write their first dictionary.
However, this work proved too slow – the first book was not published until 1694 and today it takes more than a year to read a single letter of the alphabet – so the relevance of the business increasingly suspected.
A group of linguists wrote in the Liberation newspaper on Thursday: “This effort is commendable, but so late that it is completely useless.”
This ninth edition replaces the eighth edition completed in 1935. Work began in 1986 and the previous three installments – up to the letter R – have been released.
Today the ending (last entry Zzz) was added, meaning the work is complete.
In a press release, the Academy said the dictionary is “a mirror of an era from the 1950s to the present day” and boasts 21,000 new entries compared to the 1935 edition.
But many “modern” words added in the 1980s or 90s are outdated. And such is the rate at which language changes, many of the words used today are too new to use.
So common words like tiktokeur, vlog, smartphone And emoticons – all of which are in the latest trade dictionaries – do not exist in the Académie books. On the contrary, its “new” words include predecessor concepts such as soft drink, sauna, yuppies And super small (mini supermarket).
For the latest RZ installment, the authors offer new thinking on the feminization of work, including (previously non-existent) alternatives to women for positions such as ambassador And professor. However, the printed version of the earlier parts remained unchanged, because for many years the Académie fought against it.
Likewise, the third part of the new dictionary – which includes the letter M – defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, which in France is no longer the case.
“How can anyone pretend that this collection can serve as a reference for anyone?” asked the collective, noting that online dictionaries are larger and move faster.
Led by its chairman, writer Amin Maalouf, the dictionary committee meets every Thursday morning and after discussion passes its verdict on the definitions that have been put forward in preliminary form by outside experts. .
Among the “immortals” is British poet and French expert Michael Edwards, who told Le Figaro how he tried to convince the Academy to revive the long-forgotten word . not adaptable (shallow).
“The French need it, because as every British French student knows, there is no word that means ‘shallow’,” he said. Sadly, he failed.
Discussions – long discussions – were underway to start version 10.
