vieux
French
Alternative forms
- vieulx (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle French vieulx, from Old French viel, from Vulgar Latin veclus, from Latin vetulus.
Pronunciation
Adjective
vieux (masculine singular vieil, feminine vieille, masculine plural vieux, feminine plural vieilles)
- old
- 1862, Victor Hugo, Les misérables
- Au temps de sa pire misère, il remarquait que les jeunes filles se retournaient quand il passait, et il se sauvait ou se cachait, la mort dans l’âme. Il pensait qu’elles le regardaient pour ses vieux habits et qu’elles en riaient, le fait est qu’elles le regardaient pour sa grâce et qu’elles en rêvaient.
- At the period of his most abject misery, he had observed that young girls turned round when he passed by, and he fled or hid, with death in his soul. He thought that they were staring at him because of his old clothes, and that they were laughing at them; the fact is, that they stared at him because of his grace, and that they dreamed of him.
- Au temps de sa pire misère, il remarquait que les jeunes filles se retournaient quand il passait, et il se sauvait ou se cachait, la mort dans l’âme. Il pensait qu’elles le regardaient pour ses vieux habits et qu’elles en riaient, le fait est qu’elles le regardaient pour sa grâce et qu’elles en rêvaient.
- 1862, Victor Hugo, Les misérables
Usage notes
- When placed before a singular noun beginning with a vowel or mute h, vieux becomes vieil: vieil homme /vjɛ.j‿ɔm/. In the plural, vieux does not change and liaison occurs instead: vieux hommes /vjø.z‿ɔm/.
- vieil ami = old friend (longstanding), ami âgé = old friend (in age)
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
- vieux riche (old money)
Noun
vieux m (plural vieux, feminine vieille)
- old person
Derived terms
Related terms
See also
Further reading
- “vieux”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms inherited from Vulgar Latin
- French terms derived from Vulgar Latin
- French terms inherited from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms with audio links
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns