Josette Rey-Debove (November 16, 1929 – February 22, 2005), was a French lexicographer and semiologist.
She was the first female lexicographer in France, and held many prominent posts in this field, where she used her influence to promote feminist changes to French language usage.
Josette Rey-Debove was born November 16, 1929, in Calais (Pas-de-Calais), France.
[5] She was also a professor of lexicology and semiology at the University Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle throughout the 1970s, subsequently at the University Paris VII-Denis Diderot during the 1980s, and at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales beginning in 2002.
A friend of many of the members of Oulipo (Bernard Cerquiglini, Paul Fournel), she was their visiting scholar in 1986.