atmosphère

Forms

atmosphère f (plural atmosphères)^[1] The Académie treated the word as masculine from 1694 to 1740, and it was used in both genders until the end of the 18th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a learned formation, from Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós, “vapour”) + σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “sphere”).^[2][4][5][6] Rey glosses the first element as moist vapour, a word of uncertain origin and not related to Sanskrit आत्मन् (ātmán, “breath”), and the second as the celestial sphere; it is also the source of sphère.^[2] Wiktionary analyses the French word as atmo- and -sphère.^[1] The FEW lists it under Latin sphaera.^[7] English took the word in the 1630s from New Latin atmosphaera.^[8][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is dated 1665, in Chapelain, by the GLLF, the Grand Robert, the Petit Robert and Bloch and Wartburg;^[5][3][9][4] the DHLF gives 1655.^[2] It named the gaseous envelope around the Earth, at first only its lower part, where weather happens.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The scientific notion widened in the 18th and 19th centuries with the growth of meteorology, and the word was applied to the gaseous envelopes of other heavenly bodies, such as Venus and Mars.^[2][5] By the 18th century it had become a common word, as its figurative senses show: “the air one breathes in a place” (1759) and “the surrounding moral or intellectual climate” (before 1793, Barnave).^[2] Since 1793 it has also been a unit of gas pressure.^[2]

Like climat and later milieu and environnement, it is vague in its figurative uses;^[2] Rey cites the line of Arletty in the film Hôtel du Nord, est-ce que j'ai une gueule d'atmosphère ?, which plays on changer d'atmosphère.^[2] The adjective atmosphérique (1781) keeps the scientific sense.^[2][4] Several learned names of atmospheric layers, such as stratosphère, were later formed on its model.^[2]

Timeline

• 1655 – The DHLF's date for the first record.^[2]
• 1665 – Chapelain uses the word.^[5][3]
• 1694 – The Académie records it as masculine, which it keeps until 1740.^[2]
• 1759 – First used for the air one breathes in a place.^[2]
• 1781 – First record of atmosphérique.^[2][4]
• 1793 – Used as a unit of gas pressure.^[2]
• before 1793 – Barnave uses it for a moral or intellectual climate.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The layer of gas surrounding the Earth or another celestial body.^[9][10]
2. The lower part of the Earth's atmosphere, where clouds, rain and snow form.^[9][10]
3. The air one breathes in a place.^[9][10][11]
4. (figurative) The surroundings and the influence they exert, the mood of a place or group, as in changer d'atmosphère.^[10][9]
5. (sciences) A unit of pressure for gases.^[10][11]

Word family

• atmosphérique

Related words

• sphère
• stratosphère
• Ancient Greek ἀτμός (atmós)
• English atmosphere

References

1. ^ a b c 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 q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
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. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 170a
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette