biais

Forms

biais m (invariable)^[1] As an adjective: biais, feminine biaise, masculine plural biais, feminine plural biaises.^[1][2] Middle French also wrote it biese and bioys.^[3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan biais (“oblique direction, detour”), recorded in the 12th century, from which the word seems to have spread through the Romance languages.^[4][5][1][6] The origin of the Occitan word is disputed.^[4][6] For Rey the most likely source is from Vulgar Latin *biaxius (“having two axes”), from bis (“twice”) and an adjective formed on axis (“axle”).^[4][6] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF instead derive it from Ancient Greek ἐπικάρσιος (epikársios, “oblique, athwart”), brought in by the Greek colonies on the coast of Provence in a form *(e)bigassius;^[5][7][1][8] Guiraud posits a compound *bigax or *bigaxis.^[6] Littré reports Diez's derivation from Late Latin bifax (“having a double look, squinting”), found in Isidore.^[9]

Cognate with Walloon biaiz and Catalan biaix.^[9] English bias was borrowed from the French word in the 1520s.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval use records only the adverbial phrase de biais, especially in sewing, of cloth not cut along the straight grain.^[4][5] Oresme used de biais in the 14th century for the diagonal of a square.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word spread in the 16th century as an adjective meaning “oblique” (1563), which gave the noun le biais.^[4] At the end of that century it took a pejorative figurative value, now lost but continued in the verb biaiser.^[4] The noun came to mean the aspect under which a thing or a person presents itself (Montaigne: chasque chose a plusieurs biais et plusieurs lustres), a value kept in regional use, and, after the idea of a slanting course, a “subterfuge, roundabout means” (before 1592).^[4][9] The phrases de biais and en biais are used both literally and figuratively.^[4][9]

The concrete sense “diagonal direction of a fabric” is recorded in sewing only from 1680.^[4] In modern use the word also names, in statistics, a factor that makes a result unrepresentative.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – First recorded, in the phrase de biais.^[4][5]
• 14th century – Oresme uses de biais for the diagonal of a square.^[9]
• 1402 – The verb biaiser appears.^[4][5]
• 1520s – English borrows it as bias.^[10]
• 1563 – Used as an adjective meaning “oblique”.^[4]
• Before 1592 – Used for a roundabout means or subterfuge.^[4]
• 1680 – Used in sewing for the diagonal of a fabric.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An oblique line or direction: le biais d'une façade.^[2][9]
2. (sewing) The diagonal of a fabric in relation to its straight grain, and a strip of cloth cut along it.^[2][7]
3. One of the sides or aspects of a thing or a character, an angle: par quel biais aborder la question.^[2][1]
4. An indirect or artful means of reaching an end, a detour.^[2][9]
5. En biais, de biais: obliquely, at a slant.^[9]
6. (statistics) A factor that makes a result unrepresentative, a bias.^[2][1]

Adjective

1. (architecture) Oblique in relation to a main direction: une arche biaise.^[2][7][9]

Word family

• biaiser
• biaisé
• biaisement

Related words

• English bias

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique 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. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 229b
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com