émissaire

Forms

émissaire (plural émissaires)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ēmissārius (“emissary, spy”),^[2][3][4] formed on ēmissum, the supine of ēmittō (“to send out, let go”), the source of émettre.^[3][5][6] The sense “outlet channel” is a separate borrowing (1611) of the related neuter ēmissārium (“outlet, overflow”).^[2][3][7] The adjective of bouc émissaire (1690) translates the Vulgate's Latin caper ēmissārius, which renders the Septuagint's Greek word for the goat “that averts (plagues)”, itself a misreading of the Hebrew “for Azazel”, a desert demon.^[3][7] The FEW files the word under the Latin noun.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1519 in Guillaume Michel's translation of Virgil's Georgics, for a person sent with a mission to someone else.^[2][9] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert note that it stayed rare until the end of the 17th century.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the word names an agent sent on a secret mission.^[3][10]

Cotgrave records it in 1611 for a channel that empties a pond or basin, the technical sense of Latin emissarium;^[2][3] it is used of a stream draining the overflow of a lake, as Pliny described the outlet of Lake Fucinus.^[2][6] Imperial Latin had already given emissarium a sense in anatomy,^[2][3] and French takes up that use in the 19th century: as a noun in Nysten in 1814, and as an adjective in veine émissaire in 1870, of the small veins that pass through the skull.^[2][3][10] The adjective canal émissaire is recorded by Boiste in 1829.^[5]

Bouc émissaire is recorded in 1690 by Furetière, under bouc, for the goat that the high priest loaded with the sins of Israel and drove into the desert on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16).^[5][4][3] By the end of the 17th century, in Saint-Simon, it is used figuratively of a person blamed for the faults of others, the scapegoat.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1519 – Guillaume Michel uses it of an emissary in his translation of the Georgics.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it for a channel that drains a basin.^[2][5]
• 1690 – Furetière records bouc émissaire, after the Vulgate's caper emissarius.^[5][4]
• Late 17th century – Saint-Simon uses bouc émissaire figuratively.^[4]
• 1814 – Nysten uses it as an anatomical noun.^[2][3]
• 1829 – Boiste records canal émissaire.^[5]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records it as an adjective of a drainage channel.^[2]
• 1870 – Veine émissaire appears in Larousse's Grand Dictionnaire universel.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An emissary, an agent sent on a secret mission: le roi dépêcha un émissaire auprès des rebelles.^[10][2]
2. (geography, engineering) A channel or stream that drains the overflow of a lake or basin; an outlet: l'émissaire d'un étang.^[10][2][5]
3. (engineering) Émissaire d'évacuation: a sewer that carries waste water straight from a town to the treatment or discharge site.^[10]

Adjective

1. (anatomy) Veine émissaire: one of the small veins that cross the bones of the skull and join the veins inside and outside it.^[10][2]
2. Bouc émissaire: the goat driven into the desert on the Day of Atonement, loaded with the people's sins, and figuratively a scapegoat, a person blamed for all the faults.^[6][5][4]

Related words

• émettre
• émission
• bouc
• Latin ēmissārius
• Latin ēmittō

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give the emissary, the outlet channel and the adjective of bouc émissaire as separate numbered headwords, but all three come from Latin emissarius and its neuter emissarium.^[7][10][3] The TLFi treats the agent and the channel as two words.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 220b
9. ^ Huguet, Edmond (1925–1967), Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle, 7 vols., Paris: Champion / Didier
10. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert