Etymologically
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bronze

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bʁɔ̃z/[1]

Forms

bronze m (plural bronzes)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian bronzo (“alloy of copper and tin”) (1250–1300), whose origin is obscure.[2][3][4][5][1] Medieval forms in northern Italy, such as “bronzium” (Piacenza, 1314) and “brundum” (Treviso, 1313), point to a Medieval Latin “*brundium”.[2][6] This has been connected with Latin Brundisium, Brindisi, famous for its bronze already in Pliny (“aes Brundusinum”), but the sound changes are unclear;[2][3][4][7][8] with Late Greek Ancient Greek βροντεῖον (bronteîon, “a stage device for imitating thunder”), from βροντή (brontḗ, “thunder”), the metal being named for its sound;[2][4] or with a Persian word for brass, “birinj”, through an Arabic “*burunz”.[2][3][4][9] The alloy came to the West from the East through Venice or Genoa.[3]

Littré reports Muratori's derivation from Italian bruno (“brown”).[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean Lemaire de Belges uses it in 1511 for the alloy;[2][3][5] it was often feminine until the 17th century, as in Rabelais's la bronze corinthienne.[3][10]

Semantic evolution

Besides the alloy, bronze names objects made of it (as in Italian, 1450): a bronze work of art, a bell, and in classical poetry a cannon.[2][5][10] Figuratively, as Italian did from the early 16th century, it stands for hardness and insensitivity: un cœur de bronze.[2][10][7]

The médaille de bronze is a third prize, and the âge du bronze a period of prehistory.[5][6] As a colour adjective, bronze is found from 1821.[11] The verb bronzer (about 1560) later came to mean “to tan”.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1250–1300 – Italian bronzo.[2]
  • 1313–1314 – Medieval Latin brundum, bronzium in northern Italy.[2]
  • 1511 – Bronze (Lemaire de Belges).[2][3]
  • c. 1560 – Bronzé.[3]
  • 1821 – A colour adjective.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin.[6][7]
  2. A bronze object, especially a work of art: un bronze de Rodin.[6][7]
  3. Médaille de bronze: third prize.[6][5]
  4. (literary) Cœur de bronze: a heart of stone.[7][10]

Adjective

  1. Bronze-coloured: vert bronze.[6][11]

Word family

  • bronzer

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d 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 e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  8. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
  9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 373a
  10. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  11. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF