étancher

Forms

étancher^[1] Old French estanchier;^[2] estancher from the early 16th century and étancher in Monet's dictionary (1636).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French estanchier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *stanticō (“to stop, hold back”) in the most common view, but the origin is disputed.^[3][4][5] It belongs to a family found in every Romance language: Italian stancare (“to tire”), Spanish estancar (“to stem the flow of water”), Old Occitan estancar (“to stop, close”) and Catalan tancar (“to close”), with the adjectives stanco (“tired”), Old French estanc (“dried up, tired”) and Old Occitan estanc (“exhausted”).^[3][5]

Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and the Grand Robert take this verb to come from stāns (“standing”), the present participle of stō (“to stand”);^[5][2][6][1] Bloch and Wartburg answer the objection that the ⟨i⟩ is lost in Italian and Occitan, and take the Romanian word for “left (hand)” to prove the family Latin.^[5] Picoche and another view reported by Rey start instead from *extancō, with a root meaning “to close” that may be pre-Latin, perhaps from an Indo-European word meaning “to fix”.^[7][3] P. Guiraud proposed a Romance *stannicō from stannum (“tin, lead”), with the idea of soldering with lead;^[3] Diez took it from stāgnō (“to be stagnant”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first found about 1100 (end of the 11th century in the GLLF), meaning “to stop the flow” of a liquid; in the 12th century it was said of wounds being stanched.^[3][2][8]

Semantic evolution

Old French had many senses: “to stop, dry up, exhaust, tire”.^[5] About 1150 it meant to stop the flow of blood, and about 1155 to stop from weariness, hence “to tire, exhaust” (about 1170), a sense lost after Middle French.^[3] With the idea of stopping it also meant “to console” (13th century), “to put out a fire” (about 1250, until the 16th century), “to end a war” (about 1530) and “to end a speech” (16th century).^[3] Estanchier la soif “to quench thirst” is recorded from 1258.^[4][3]

From the stopping of liquids came étancher une voie d'eau “to stop a leak” on a ship (1736) and étancher ses larmes (1694, Académie).^[2][3] The technical sense “to make watertight” (1690, Furetière) was formed anew from the adjective étanche.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – First record of estanchier.^[3]
• c. 1150 – Used of stopping the flow of blood.^[3]
• c. 1170 – The sense “to tire, exhaust”.^[3]
• 1258 – Étancher la soif “to quench thirst”.^[4][3]
• 1636 – Monet's dictionary spells it étancher.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “to make watertight”.^[3]
• 1736 – Étancher une voie d'eau at sea.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop the flow of a liquid, to stanch: étancher le sang d'une coupure.^[4][2][1]
2. (nautical) Étancher une voie d'eau: to stop a leak in a ship's hull.^[4][2]
3. Étancher les larmes: to dry tears; figuratively, to console.^[4][8]
4. Étancher la soif: to quench one's thirst.^[4][8][1]
5. (technical) To make watertight: étancher un réservoir.^[4][1]

Word family

• étanche
• étanchement
• étang

Related words

• Latin stō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette