chômage (French)

Where does "chômage" come from?

The French noun 'chômage', meaning 'unemployment' or 'idleness', derives from the verb 'chômer' paired with the suffix '-age'[1]. The verb descends from Late Latin 'caumāre', which meant 'to rest during the heat'[2]. This verb was formed from the noun 'cauma', borrowed from Ancient Greek 'kaûma', meaning 'heat' or 'heat of the sun'[2][5]. Ancient Greek 'kaûma' was itself built from the verb 'kaíō', meaning 'to burn'[3], which leads back to Proto-Hellenic '*káyyō'[6]. Over time, resting during the midday heat evolved into the broader concept of ceasing work, ultimately yielding modern French terms for being out of work.

Open questions

The deeper origin of Proto-Hellenic '*káyyō' is uncertain, though it may derive from Proto-Indo-European '*keh₂w-', meaning 'to burn'. [6]

Full etymology tree

chômage (French), 'idleness'
- affix chômer (French), 'to be idle'
  - inherited caumare (Latin), 'inflection of caumō:'
    - derived καῦμα (kaûma) (Ancient Greek), 'burning, glow, heat (especially of the sun)'
      - affix καίω (kaíō) (Ancient Greek), 'to light, kindle, set on fire'
        inherited *káyyō (Proto-Hellenic)
        derived *keh₂w- (Proto-Indo-European)
      - 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 -age (French), 'Forming nouns with the sense of "action or result of Xing" or, more rarely, "action related to X".'

Ancestors

chômer (French)
-age (French)

Descendants and derived words

șomaj (Romanian)

Related words

travail (French)

Sources

Updated September 2026

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