chômeur (English)

Where does "chômeur" come from?

The English noun 'chômeur' was borrowed from French 'chômeur'[1], which is formed from 'chômer' combined with the suffix '-eur'[2]. The French verb 'chômer' traces back through Late Latin 'caumāre' meaning 'to rest during the heat'[3] to the Ancient Greek noun 'kaûma' meaning 'heat'[3][6]. This Ancient Greek term originates from 'kaíō' meaning 'to burn'[4]. Coined in its linguistic sense by Colette Grinevald, the word describes an actant demoted to a less salient syntactic position[1].

Open questions

The ultimate origin of the Proto-Hellenic form giving rise to the Ancient Greek 'kaíō' remains uncertain. [7]

Full etymology tree

chômeur (English), 'An actant that has been 'demoted' to a less salient syntactic position, such as the agent of a passive clause.'
- borrowed chômeur (French), 'an unemployed person'
  - derived chômer (French), 'to be idle'
    - inherited caumare (Latin), 'inflection of caumō:'
      - derived cauma (Latin), 'heat'
        borrowed καῦμα (kaûma) (Ancient Greek), 'burning, glow, heat (especially of the sun)'
        derived καίω (kaíō) (Ancient Greek), 'to light, kindle, set on fire'
        inherited *káyyō (Proto-Hellenic)
        suffix -μα (-ma) (Ancient Greek), 'Added to verbal stems to form neuter nouns denoting the effect or result of an action, a particular instance of an action, or the object of an action'
      - suffix -o (Latin), 'suffixed to nouns or adjectives. Originally a-stem nouns. Later extended to nouns with other stems. Forms regular first-conjugation verbs'
  - suffix -eur (French), 'forms masculine agent nouns from verbs (some of which are also used as adjectives)'

Ancestors

chômeur (French)

Sources

Updated August 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris