English

Noun

devoir ‎(plural devoirs)

1. (archaic, often in plural) Duty, business; something that one must do.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, volume I, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, page 149:

     […] he imprint not so much in his schollers mind […] where Marcellus died, as because he was unworthy of his devoire he died there […].

   • 1787, “A female” [pseudonym; Winifred Marshall Gales], The History of Lady Emma Melcombe, and Her Family. By a Female. In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, OCLC 316739067, page 155:

     I should have long ere this paid my devoirs to the inhabitants of Raymond Castle.

   • 1836 July, “London Fashionable Chit-Chat”, in The Lady's Magazine and Museum of the Belles-lettres, Fine Arts, Music, Drama, Fashions, &c., volume IX, London: Dobbs & Co., Hemlock Court, Carey Street, Lincolns Inn (Formerly at 112, Fetter Lane), OCLC 5140771156, page 73:

     [M]y eyes were oft times [on the] charmante maitresse de la maison, who glided among her guests in her flowing Spanish mantilla, and train of the clearest blonde, doing her devoirs with winning kindness, and showing how much benevolence of manner adds to beauty.

   • 1873 March, H[enry] James Jr., “The Madonna of the Future”, in The Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume XXXI, number CLXXXV, Boston, Mass.: James R. Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood & Co., page 277:

     A young man who arrives at Florence late in the evening, and, instead of going prosaically to bed, or hanging over the travellers' book at his hotel, walks forth without loss of time to pay his devoirs to the Beautiful, is a young man after my own heart!

   • 1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night: With Introduction, Explanatory Notes on the Manners and Customs of Moslem Men, and a Terminal Essay upon the History of The Nights, Benares [false, actually Stoke Newington, London]: Kamashastra Society, OCLC 556574150:

     Then quoth the portress to the mistress of the house, "O my lady, arise and go to thy place that I in turn may do my devoir."

   • 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

From Old French deveir, from Latin dēbēre, present active infinitive of dēbeō ‎(“to owe, to be duty bound to do something”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dəvwaʁ/
• Rhymes: -waʁ

Noun

devoir m ‎(plural devoirs)

1. duty
2. exercise (set for homework)

Derived terms

• devoir sur table

Verb

devoir

1. must, to have to (as a requirement)
2. must, to do or have with certainty
3. (transitive) to owe (money, obligation and etc)
4. (literary, intransitive, in imperfect subjunctive, with inversion of subject) (even) though it be necessary (+ infinitive)
   • 1842, George Sand, Consuelo:

     Eh bien, se dit-elle, j'irai, dussé-je affronter les dangers réels [...]. ⇒ Well, she said to herself, I'll go, even if I have to face real danger.

5. (reflexive, ~ à) to have a duty to

Conjugation

Usage notes

• The past participle drops the circumflex accent in its other forms: feminine singular due; masculine plural dus; feminine plural dues.

Derived terms

• comme il se doit

See also

• falloir

Old French

Alternative forms

• deveir
• deoir verb

Etymology

From Latin dēbēre, present active infinitive of dēbeō ‎(“I owe, I am duty bound to do something”).

Verb

devoir

1. (modal) to have to; must
2. 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 m ‎(oblique plural devoirs, nominative singular devoirs, nominative plural devoir)

1. debt

Descendants

• English: due (from past participle deu, deü)
• Middle French: debvoir
  • French: devoir

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (devoir)
• “Appendix E: Irregular Verbs” in E. Einhorn (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-09838-6, pages 152–153