§ 426. Formation of Adverbs.

A. Adverbs have been obtained from Latin particles, sometimes with, sometimes without, composition with other particles, etc. ou, loin, tandis, souvent, donc, mieux, non, ne, là, quand, y, hier, mal, ici, devant, demain, derrière, dessous, depuis, dessus, assez, ensemble, etc.

B. Adverbs have been obtained from nouns and adjectives: i. Adverbs obtained from oblique case (mostly accusative) of nouns or of adjectives, without preposition :

(1) Bas, bon, chaud, clair, exprès, haut, mauvais, seul, vite, bref, faux, vrai.

(2) Moult, (archaic) peu, trop.

(3) Encore, lors.

ii. Adverbs obtained from oblique cases of nouns and adjectives with accompanying prepositions—mostly de, à, en, par:

de côté, de jour, davantage, (d'avantage), d'accord.

à présent, à droite, à gauche, à l'anglaise, à l'avenir, à côté, à peine, à midi, à l'instant, alors, aval, à reculons, etc. environ, en vain, en face, en retard, en vérité, ensuite, etc. parmi, parfois, etc.

iii. Adverbs formed by repetition of nouns : côte à côte, tête à tête, vis-à-vis, etc.

C. Adverbs have been obtained by composition of feminine adjectives with -ment. This suffix has its origin in mente (with a mind), the ablative case of the Latin feminine substantive mens (§ 435). This is the only living mode of forming adverbs.

Special Rules and Exceptions (§ 435).

(a) Adjectives in -ant and -ent * form their adverbs in -amment and -emment respectively: as, constant, constamment; évident, évidemment.

(B) Adjectives in i, u, é, now drop the e mute of the feminine: thus trai makes vraiment; absolu, absolument; modéré, modérément.

But beau, nouveau, fou, mou (§ 147), regularly form their responding adverbs from the feminines belle, nouvelle, folle, molle. Gai still makes gaiement or gaiment; dû makes dument; assidu, assidument (§ 56. iv.); impuni makes impunément.

(y) Traîtreusement (treacherously), gentiment (prettily), brièvement (briefly), are anomalous forms.

(6) The following Adjectives now take an acute accent over the final e when -ment is added :

-

* But lent, slow, and présent, follow the general rule.

These must not be confused with such words as assurément from

assuré, assurée, where the e of the feminine has dropped out,

Aveuglement blindness.

§ 427. Comparison of Adverbs.

Some Adverbs admit of degrees of comparison. Like Adjectives, they are compared by the help of plus or moins:

Demain is from de, and mane, morning. In le lendemain, the morrow, the article occurs twice. Till the fifteenth century this word was correctly written l'endemain (le en demain).

L'endemain, ils se desancrerent.

(FROISSART.)

Till the seventeenth century it was sometimes written in the old and correct way, sometimes as now. Compare le lierre, ivy (Lat. hedera), till the fifteenth century written without l: feuillage de yeire.

§ 429. Naguère, naguères.

Naguère or naguères is an adverb compound, ne, a and guère. Guère beaucoup. Hence naguère = n'a beaucoup. The whole phrase would stand thus in Modern French il n'y a pas beaucoup de temps.

Guère, or guères, is only employed now with a negative meaning, but originally guère had affirmative force only. Compare jamais rien, personne, etc. (§ 434).

Seigneur d'une ville non gueres grande.

(AMYOT, 16th cent.) Je ne suis pas homme qui me laisse gueres garotter le juge(MONTAIGNE, 16th cent.)

ment.

§ 430. Aujourd'hui.

Aujourd'hui au jour de hui: hui is hodie (to-day). Henco aujourd'hui at the day of to-day. Till the sixteenth century hui (hodie) was freely employed by itself:

=

Qu'il sort ainsi plus tost huy que demain.

(MAROT, 16th cent.) It is so employed by La Fontaine : Dans dix mois d'hui.

§ 431. Jamais, jadis, à jamais, déjà.

Ja in each of these words is Latin jam (now). Ja was often used by itself in Old French. It is so employed by La Fontaine : Je l'ai ja dit d'autre façon.

Jamais is sometimes found in two distinct words in Old French:

Ja de mon cuer n'istra (ne sortira) mais la semblance.

Déjà, already = dès ja:

COUCY, 12th cent.)

Des ja y avait cinq ou six enseignes du roi.

(COMMINES, 15th cent.)

§ 432. Or, lors, lors de, lorsque, lors même que, dès lors, désormais, dorénavant, encore,

All have their origin in hora, heure:
Or heure. Lors l'heure. Lors de
=

=

Alors

=

l'heure de.

Dès lors à l'heure. Dorénavant (Old French, Désormais (Old

dès l'heure. d'ore en avant) de cette heure en avant. French, dès or mais

=

de cette heure en avant.

Encore (Old French, anc ore) = cette heure. Encore now means (1) à cette heure: Cela dit, maître loup s'enfuit, et court encore. (2) De nouveau: J'ai couru une fois, et je courrai encore.

§ 433. Devant and avant.

Devant is mainly used in opposition to derrière, as an adverb of place, and avant in opposition to après, as an adverb of time; but they often interchange. This is true whether the words are employed as simple prepositions, as adverbs, as conjunctions with que, as substantives, or as adjectives.

Avant, used of place:

Mettre la fin avant le commencement.
N'allons point plus avant, demeurons, chère Oenone.

(LITTRÉ.)

(RACINE.)

Quelques-uns, passant plus avant, ont déclaré, etc.

(PASCAL.)

Allez en avant. En avant, marche. L'avant-bras. L'avantgarde, etc. Devant, used of time (more rare):

Une constance qu'il n'avait jamais comme devant.

(HAMILTON.)

Si comme devant il vous faut encore suivre, j'y consens.

(MOLIÈRE.)

Un peu devant sa mort.

(BOSSUET.)

Devant ce temps (vingt ans) l'on est enfant.

(PASCAL.)

Comme nous avons dit ci-devant.

(LITTRÉ.)

Un ci-devant noble.

§ 434. Negation.

In Latin, ne is essentially the negative particle, all other negatives contain it: nullus, neque, nec, neuter, non, nisi, nihil, nunquam, nemo, nusquam, nolo, etc.

The French ne, obtained from Latin non, is similarly the particle to the influence of which all negatives can be traced; unless we except ni, nul, non, which are derived directly from Latin nec, nullus, non.

*

If such words as pas, point, personne, rien, jamais, etc., have any negative force, it is only by long association with ne, and by being constantly added to strengthen it. They are by nature affirmative, and can regain their affirmative meaning. Moreover, negation can be expressed by ne only.

The exceptions to the rule, that adverbs in -ment (§ 426) are formed from the feminine of the corresponding adjective, admit of various explanations—as usual each 'irregularity' has a raison d'être.

(1) 'Adjectives in -ant, -ent, form their adverbs in -amment, -emment respectively; constant, constamment; évident, évidemment.'

Adjectives in -ant, -ent, are from Latin participial forms in -antem, -entem. Such words in Old French had but one form for the masculine and feminine (§ 207).

Blanche (elle) fut et vermeille et plaisanst a devise.
(Berte, 13th cent.)

(Il y) avoit une escarboucle ardant.

(Romancero, 12th cent.)

With -ment added this form was maintained.

Je le connois evidanment. (Lai d'Amours, 13th cent.) In the sixteenth century an attempt was made to place those adverbs under the rule, which was then almost general (§ 207), viz., that of adding e to all feminine adjectives; then only we find the form in -entement.

*

Compare English none, naught, nor, neither, never, etc., in which the Old English ne also enters.

† § 210. 2.