Etienne Fourmont (June 23, 1683 - December 8, 1745) was a French orientalist.

Born at Herbelai near Saint Denis, he studied at the College Mazarin in Paris and afterwards in the College Montaigu where his attention was attracted to Oriental languages.

Shortly after leaving the college he published a Traduction du commentaire du Rabbin Abraham A ben Esra sur lecclsiaste.

In 1711 Louis XIV appointed Fourmont to assist a young Chinese Hoan-ji, in compiling a Chinese grammar. Hoan-ji died in 1716 and it was not until 1737 that Fourmont published Meditationes Sinicae and in 1742 Grammatica Sinica. He also wrote Réflexions critiques sur les histoires des anciens peuples (1735), and several dissertations printed in the Memoires of the Academy of Inscriptions.

He became professor of Arabic in the College de France in 1715. In 1713 he was elected a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, in 1738 a member of the Royal Society of London, and in 1742 a member of that of Berlin. He died at Paris on December 8, 1745.

His brother, Michel Fourmont (1690-1746), was also a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and professor of the Syriac language in the Royal College, and was sent by the government to copy inscriptions in Greece.

References

• Initial article based on a 1911 encyclopedia