devoir

== English == === Etymology === From Middle English devoir, borrowed from Middle French devoir, from Old French deveir, from Latin dēbēre (“to owe; ought, must”). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /dəˈvwɑː/ Rhymes: -ɑː Hyphenation: de‧voir === Noun === devoir (plural devoirs) (archaic, often in plural) Duty, business; something that one must do. 1983, Lawrence Durrell, Sebastian, or Ruling Passions (The Avignon Quintet; 4), London; Boston, Mass.: Faber & Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-13111-2; republished in The Avignon Quintet, London: Faber & Faber, 2004, ISBN 978-0-571-22555-2, page 1057: That is the little bit of essential information which enables us to complete our devoir – without it we are just ordinary people, dispossessed, taken unawares: the original sin! === Anagrams === voider == French == === Etymology === Inherited from Middle French debvoir, from Old French deveir, from Latin dēbēre (to owe; ought, must). === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /də.vwaʁ/, (informal) /dvwaʁ/ Rhymes: -waʁ === Noun === devoir m (plural devoirs) duty manquer à son devoir, manquer à tous ses devoirs ― to fail in one's duty, duties Il est de mon devoir de protéger le roi. ― It is my duty to protect the king. exercise, assignment (set for homework) ==== Derived terms ==== === Verb === devoir must, to have to, should (as a requirement) (present) must (conditional) should must, to do or have with certainty (transitive) to owe (money, obligation and etc) (literary, intransitive, in imperfect subjunctive, with inversion of subject) (even) if it is necessary (+ infinitive) (reflexive, ~ de) to have a duty to ==== Usage notes ==== The circumflex accent applied to the u in the past participle dû serves only to distinguish it from the prepositive du (“of the”). As such, the circumflex is omitted in the participle's other inflections: due f sg, dus m pl, dues f pl. The diacritic is likewise omitted in the derived adjective indu (“undue, unwarranted”) and its inflected forms, but retained in the adverbial derivative dûment and indûment, where it serves as an etymological marker signaling the elision of the letter e from the older spelling duement. These latter, however, may be rendered dument and indument according to the orthographic reforms advanced by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française and approved by the Académie française in 1990. In negative constructions (e.g. ne pas devoir and ne plus devoir), the sense becomes "must not," "should not", etc. Je dois y aller. ― I must go. / I have to go. Je ne dois pas y aller. ― I must not go. Ne devriez-vous pas vous en aller ? ― Shouldn't you go away? ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Derived terms ==== (dû) indu dûment indûment redevoir chose promise, chose due comme il se doit en bonne et due forme ==== Related terms ==== redevable === See also === falloir obliger === Further reading === “devoir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012 == Middle English == === Etymology === Borrowed from Middle French devoir, from Old French devoir, deveir, from Latin dēbēre (“to owe, to be duty bound to do something”). === Noun === devoir (plural devoirs) devoir ==== Descendants ==== English: devoir == Old French == === Alternative forms === deveir (archaic or regional) deoir (verb) === Etymology === From Latin dēbēre. === Pronunciation === (archaic) IPA(key): /dəˈvei̯ɾ/ (classical) IPA(key): /dəˈvoi̯ɾ/, (northern) /dəˈvei̯ɾ/ (late) IPA(key): /dəˈvo̯ɛɾ/, (northern) /dəˈveɾ/ === Verb === devoir (modal) to have to; must to owe ==== Conjugation ==== This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has a stressed present stem doiv distinct from the unstressed stem dev, as well as other irregularities. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide. The trema on the u of the past participle deü is not used by all authors. The feminine forms of the past participle are more commonly spelled due and dues, though deue and deues are attested. === Noun === devoir oblique singular, m (oblique plural devoirs, nominative singular devoirs, nominative plural devoir) debt ==== Descendants ==== Angevin: devair Gallo: devair Lorrain: devor Middle French: debvoir (see there for further descendants) Norman: deveir Picard: dvoér Walloon: diveur === References === Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “devoir”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC. “Appendix E: Irregular Verbs” in E. Einhorn (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 152–153