échappement

Forms

échappement m (plural échappements)^[1] Old French eschapement, Anglo-Norman also echapement.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French échapper + -ment.^[2][4][1] The Old French form was eschapement.^[2][3]

The verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *excappō, built on Late Latin cappa (“cloak”).^[1][4] Bloch and Wartburg explain it as properly “to throw off the monk's frock”, or perhaps “to get out of one's cloak, leaving it in the pursuer's hands”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1175 as eschapement in Horn, meaning a way out or means of escape.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “means of escape, way out” has gone out of use;^[6][7] in the 15th century it could still be said of a prisoner's escape from the Bastille.^[8] The word was rare before the 18th century,^[2][4] when it was taken up as a clockmaking term: the Dictionnaire de Trévoux records it in 1752,^[2][6] though the Petit Robert dates the sense to 1717.^[7]

From 1845 it was used for the escape of steam or another fluid,^[2][6] and then in mechanics for the expulsion of burnt gases from an engine, in phrases such as soupape d'échappement and pot d'échappement (1894).^[6] The figurative sense of an escape from reality is found in Gide in 1936.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1175 – Eschapement “means of escape” appears in Horn.^[2]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the clockmaking sense.^[2][6]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records échappement de la vapeur “escape of steam”.^[2][9]
• 1894 – Pot d'échappement is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) The act or a means of escaping or of getting out of a difficulty.^[7][2]
2. (clockmaking) An escapement: the mechanism that regulates the movement of a clock or watch, releasing one tooth of the last wheel at each swing of the pendulum or balance.^[7][2][8]
3. The escape of a fluid, such as steam.^[2][9]
4. The exhaust of an engine: the expulsion of burnt gases, the last stroke of the cycle in which it happens, and the device that carries the gases away, as in pot d'échappement and gaz d'échappement.^[7][2][1]

Related words

• échapper
• échappatoire
• échappée

Usage notes

Échappement libre is said of an engine whose gases go straight into the open air, without a silencer.^[7][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse