Pylimitics

Calendar-wise, we’re nearing the neighborhood of Independence Day in the US, and it occurs to me that France was the most important ally of the revolutionary American colonies — in fact, France provided the word “declaration,” as in Declaration of Independence. In typical US fashion, we celebrate that document’s signing on July 4, but it wasn’t actually signed on that date. Regardless, “declaration” dates from the mid 1500s, and is imported into English directly from the Old French “declaration,” which meant the act of stating. By the 1650s the English term had come to mean proclamation or public statement. 

“Independence” is also from French; it was imported in the early 1600s from the French “independant.” It originally had to do with churches: being a member of an independent congregational church. By 1732 it referred to being able to live well without working. By 1790 it meant unbiased, set up so as to be unaffected by outside influence. By 1808, likely as a result of its use in the “Declaration of Independence,” independence had acquired the specific sense of a person not acting as part of a political party.

There was an Old English word used in a very similar sense to independent: “selfdom.” It meant something more like “privilege.” In the English tradition — which you see deeply woven into US culture as well — the idea of “independence” has always had a great deal to do with wealth and class. In the original formation of the US, remember, only wealthy white male landowners were able to vote. This was a purely English class-system idea. It was attributed to ancient Greece, where democracy was supposedly first created (or at least named). Anthropologically, however, it appears that something very much like democracy arose far earlier, in tribes of hunter-gatherers. This observation is so widespread that some people think the system may be the default arrangement for human organization. 

“Revolution” comes from French too. In Old French “revolucion” meant the “course of celestial bodies.” The Old French word came from the Latin “revolvere” (turn). The sense of being a great change in human affairs was recorded first in the mid 1400s. Associating that with purely political events began around 1600, and is first recorded in connection to events in England in 1688, when William and Mary supplanted the Stuart dynasty (James II). 

It’s possible — I mean, I think I’ve read something about it — that France did a great deal to aid the British colonies in what became the US in their fight for independence. The usual mentions of assistance include what you’d expect: providing officers, soldiers, armaments, nonsense like that. But come on, how important those be next to providing the words needed to make the initial announcement?