motif

English

Etymology

From French motif (1848), with the meaning of "main idea or theme". Doublet of motive.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /moʊˈtiːf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːf

Noun

motif (plural motifs)

1. A recurring or dominant element; an artistic theme.

   See how the artist repeats the scroll motif throughout the work?

2. (music) A short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated in several parts of a work.
3. A decorative figure that is repeated in a design or pattern.
4. (dressmaking) A decorative appliqué design or figure, as of lace or velvet, used in trimming.
5. (crystallography) The physical object or objects repeated at each point of a lattice. Usually atoms or molecules.
6. (chess) A basic element of a move in terms of why the piece moves and how it supports the fulfilment of a stipulation.
7. (biochemistry) In a nucleotide or aminoacid sequence, pattern that is widespread and has, or is conjectured to have, a biological significance.

Derived terms

• BACH motif
• network motif

 

Related terms

• motive
• phosphomotif
• leitmotif
• motify

Translations

recurring or dominant element; a theme

• Bulgarian: мотив (bg) m (motiv)
• Catalan: motiu (ca) m
• Czech: motiv (cs) m
• Dutch: motief (nl) n
• Finnish: aihe (fi)
• French: motif (fr) m
• Galician: motivo (gl) m
• German: Motiv (de) n
• Greek: μοτίβο (el) n (motívo)
• Hebrew: מוטיב (he) m (motiv)
• Hungarian: motívum (hu)
• Japanese: 主題 (ja) (shudai), モチーフ (mochīfu)
• Polish: motyw (pl) m
• Portuguese: motivo (pt) m, leitmotiv m
• Russian: моти́в (ru) m (motív)
• Scottish Gaelic: ùrlar m
• Spanish: motivo (es) m
• Swedish: motiv (sv) n

music: short melodic passage that is repeated in several parts of a work

• Bulgarian: мотив (bg) m (motiv)
• Catalan: motiu (ca) m
• Finnish: motiivi (fi), aihio (fi)
• French: motif (fr) m
• German: Motiv (de) n
• Greek: μοτίβο (el) n (motívo)
• Hungarian: motívum (hu)
• Ido: motivo (io)
• Japanese: 主題 (ja) (shudai), モチーフ (mochīfu)
• Maori: rerenga auau
• Portuguese: motivo (pt) m
• Russian: моти́в (ru) m (motív)
• Spanish: motivo (es) m
• Turkish: motif (tr)

decorative figure that is repeated in a design

• Finnish: aihe (fi), kuvio (fi)
• French: motif (fr) m
• German: Motiv (de) n
• Greek: μοτίβο (el) n (motívo)
• Japanese: モチーフ (mochīfu)
• Portuguese: motivo (pt) m
• Russian: моти́в (ru) m (motív)
• Swedish: motiv (sv) n
• Turkish: motif (tr)

crystallography: physical object or objects repeated at each point of a lattice

nucleotide or amino-acid sequence pattern

• French: motif (fr)
• Italian: motivo (it)
• Portuguese: motivo (pt)
• Spanish: motivo (es)

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin mōtivus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɔ.tif/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

motif m (plural motifs)

1. motive

   pour des motifs qui échappent à tout le monde, à toute logique, à notre appréciation

   for motives that escape everyone, all logic, our appreciation

   Pour un motif qui m’échappe, un certain merdeux s’est mis à feindre de s’intéresser à mon bien-etre.

   For some motive that escapes me, some shit started pretending to be interested in my well-being.

   • 1836, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, chapter XL, in Louis Viardot, transl., L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, volume I, Paris: J[acques]-J[ulien] Dubochet et C^ie, éditeurs, […], →OCLC:

     Bien que la faim et le dénûment nous tourmentassent quelquefois, et même à peu près toujours, rien ne nous causait autant de tourment que d’être témoins des cruautés inouïes que mon maître exerçait sur les chrétiens. Chaque jour il en faisait pendre quelqu’un ; on empalait celui-là, on coupait les oreilles à celui-ci, et cela pour si peu de chose, ou plutôt tellement sans motif, que les Turcs eux-mêmes reconnaissaient qu’il ne faisait le mal que pour le faire, et parce que son humeur naturelle le portait à être le meurtrier de tout le genre humain.

     Even though hunger and destitution tormented us sometime, and even almost always, nothing caused us as much torment as being witnesses to the unheard-of cruelties that my master exercised on the Christians. Every day, he made someone hang; they impaled that one, they cut off this one's ears, and this for so little stuff, or rather so much without motive, that the Turks themselves recognized that he only did harm for the sake of it, and because his natural temperament brought him to be the murderer of the whole human race.

2. motif
3. pattern, design

Derived terms

• au motif que

Descendants

• → Danish: motiv
• → English: motif
• → German: Motiv
  • → Romanian: motiv
• → Norwegian Bokmål: motiv
• → Norwegian Nynorsk: motiv
• → Swedish: motiv
• → Turkish: motif

Further reading

• “motif”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Indonesian

Etymology

From Dutch motief, from Middle Dutch motijf, from Old French motif (Modern French motif), from Late Latin mōtivus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmotɪf]
• Hyphenation: mo‧tif

Noun

motif (first-person possessive motifku, second-person possessive motifmu, third-person possessive motifnya)

1. motif:
   1. a recurring or dominant element; an artistic theme.

      Synonyms: corak, pola

   2. (music, literature) a short melodic or lyrical passage that is repeated in several parts of a work.
2. motive:
   1. (law) something which causes someone to want to commit a crime; a reason for criminal behaviour.

Derived terms

• bermotif

 

• motif dasar
• motif hiasan
• motif intrinsik

 

Related terms

• motivasi

 

Further reading

• “motif” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.