English
Lettrism
Lettrism comes from French lettre ‘letter’, and goes back to Latin littera.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElittera‘letter’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400letre‘letter’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentlettre‘letter’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentLettrisme
- Englishearliest quotation 1983Lettrism
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CElittera‘letter’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400letre‘letter’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentlettre‘letter’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentLettrisme
- Englishearliest quotation 1983Lettrism
Earliest quotation: 1983, Tom McDonough, Lettrism: A Neo-Dadaism?: “So if lettrism, like Dada, came out of a…”
Linked words
through Latin littera ‘letter’
literally, literature, letter, literary, literal, illiterate, literate, literati, 8 more
Today it means
name A French avant-garde art and literary movement established in the mid-1940s, owing inspiration to Dada and surrealism.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin littera / Lettrism