dernier
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdəːnjeɪ/
ipa: /ˈdɚnjeɪ/
Etymology: Borrowed from French dernier, a contraction of derrenier, from Old French derrain (“final, last”) (by analogy with premier), from Vulgar Latin *dēretrānus, from Latin dē (“from, away from”) + retrō (“back; backwards; behind”) + -ānus (“of or pertaining to”).
Senses: examples: text: Then as I'm a Chriſtian, I ſuſpect we have both been equally involv'd in the misfortune of a Miſtake. Sir, I am in the dernier Confuſion to avow, that tho my Daughter Conſtantia has been liable to ſeveral Addreſſes; yet ſhe never has had the Honour to be produc'd to his Grace.
ref: 1617, [John Fletcher]; George, Duke of Buckingham [i.e., George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham], “The Chances: A Comedy; as It is Acted at the Theatre-Royal. By His Grace the Duke of Buckingham, Author of The Rehearsal”, in Two Plays Written by His Grace George Late Duke of Buckingham: viz. I. The Rehearsal; to which is Added the Key to It. And, II. The Chances. Being All that His Grace Ever Publish’d. Corrected from the Errors of Former Editions, London: Printed by J. Darby for M. P. and sold by A. Bettesworth […], and F. Clay […], published 1723, →OCLC, act V, scene iii, page 157:
text: That thoſe laws of Ed[ward] 3 for Annual Parliaments are pro bono publico [for the public good], and of the greateſt concern to the Nation, beſides they are made concerning the higheſt Court of Judicature, of the Dernier Reſort, and which regulates and keeps all the reſt in order, needs not a proof to any reaſonable man.
ref: 1676, author uncertain; attributed to Nicholas Carey or Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles, Some Considerations upon the Question, whether the Parliament is Dissolved by It’s Prorogation for 15 Months?, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, section II, page 7:
text: The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!
ref: 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, […], published 1808, →OCLC, page 474:
text: [T]he attention of the Board in New-street, Spring-gardens, was in vain called to the petinacious obstinacy of these justices, until, wearied with official correspondence, and "having no reasonable expectation," they state, "that any steps would be taken by the committee of visiting justices to the remedy of the manifest defects," upon which they had animadverted, they inform us that they had recourse to the dernier ressort—an appeal to the Secretary of State […]
ref: 1853 October 1, “Art. I. State of Lunacy in England.”, in Forbes Winslow, editor, The Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology, volume VI, number XXIV, London: John Churchill, […], →OCLC, pages 475–476:
text: In the autumn of 1849 Mr. and Mrs. Bracebridge, who were to spend some months in the East, again proposed that Miss [Florence] Nightingale should travel with them, and again the offer was gladly accepted. Her sister was delighted. […] The sister reported to her friends that "Flo had taken tea with the Bunsens to receive the dernier mot [last word] on Egyptology," and that she was going out "laden with learned books."
ref: 1913, Edward [Tyas] Cook, “Foreign Travel: Egypt and Greece (1849–1850)”, in The Life of Florence Nightingale […] In Two Volumes, volumes I (1820–1861), London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, […], →OCLC, page 84:
text: And of course what was there possibly to be said that hadn't already been said about the dernier mot or the last word or the afterword or postscript or any number of other equivalent terms, in an interminable logic of the supplement, by Jacques Derrida himself?
ref: 2009, Nicholas Royle, “Last”, in In Memory of Jacques Derrida, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 186:
glosses: Final, last.
Related terms: darrein
dernier cri