A systemic approach to language excludes the possibility of absolute synonymy. However, because the language is always evolving, the use brings up innovations that can compete with existing words. The revolutionary period, as more generally periods of strong transformation, is a favorable moment to synonymic accidents: this article analyzes the little "lexical drama" that was played between verbs opiner and voter. Opiner, that reflected the ancient practices of "authorized companies", has fallen into disuse. But less strictly referential parameters may have contributed to the preference to the verb voter: the taste of anglicisms, but also the need for solemnity, that the verb opiner no longer had, and which characterizes the look of the new language French.
