annihilation

Forms

annihilation f (plural annihilations)^[1] Middle French anichilacion (Oresme) and adnichilation (1377).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin adnichilatio, from adnichilo (“to bring to nothing”).^[3][4] The Medieval Latin forms were spelled with ⟨ch⟩, the medieval way of writing Latin nihil (“nothing”); the French word was later remade on the classical spelling and pronounced accordingly, most likely in the 16th century (the present form is attested in 1610).^[5][3] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert call the Latin word ecclesiastical, and Wiktionary gives it as annihilātiō.^[4][6][1]

The FEW treats it under the Latin word for nothing.^[7][8] The dates differ: the GLLF has 1361 (Oresme), the DHLF and the Grand Robert 1377.^[5][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nicole Oresme uses it in the 14th century in a theological argument on whether the reduction of a thing to nothing is possible: Se anichilacion est possible, creacion de niant est possible “if annihilation is possible, creation from nothing is possible”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Like the verb annihiler, the noun became a learned word, with legal and abstract uses: in law it named the complete annulment of an act, a gift or a will.^[3][9][2] In physics it took on a concrete sense again: the transformation of matter into energy when a particle meets its antiparticle, which the TLFi still marked as a neologism.^[3][9][6]

Timeline

• 1361 – First recorded, in Oresme.^[5]
• 1377 – The form adnichilation is recorded.^[3][4]
• 1610 – The learned spelling annihilation is attested.^[3]
• 1964 – A nuclear-physics dictionary defines the physical sense.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of annihilating or the state of being annihilated; utter destruction, anéantissement.^[10][6][5]
2. (law, dated) The complete annulation of a legal act, such as a gift or a will.^[9][2]
3. (physics) The reaction in which a particle and its antiparticle disappear and are turned into radiation or other particles, such as photons.^[9][6][10]

Related words

• annihiler
• néant
• Latin nihil

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 139b
8. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ a b c d e 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
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)