Addiction : a definition
A few month ago a reporter of our relatives made some researches
about the word *addiction*. I think it would be interesting to
give you the results of these linguistic researches.
*Addictions*
This word wasn't into usage in French until a few years ago.
It came into usage in French from English anf its meaning is the same
in French as in English.
But, after some researches it appears that *addiction* is an old French
word which came into usage in English from old French, centuries ago ( A
lot of words had moved back and forth beetwin the two languages !!) .
The original meaning was about an old legal procedure in usage in the middle
age.
This procedure of *addiction* was intended when someone couldn't pay back his
debt to his creditor. So he was *addicted* to the creditor. It was some
kind of a slavery until all the money plus the interest was given back to
the creditor. The creditor got the right to decide of all the addict's areas
of life. Due to the raise of interest, most of the time the addict stayed addicted
for the rest of his life. I think that in such countries as India or Bangla Desh
this kind of thing is still in usage.
(Thanks to Pascale SENK for her researches)
Don't ask for credit to your liquor's vendor ;-) !!!
- Bernard Frit