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cadavre

Etymology and origin of the French word cadavre

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
before 1550, Marguerite de Navarre
Borrowed from
Latin cadaver
Ultimate origin
Latin (cadaver)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cadaver
English cadaver
French cadavre

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ka.davʁ/[1]
  • IPA: /ka.dɑvʁ/[1]

Forms

cadavre m (plural cadavres)[1] Cadaver (before 1550; till 1637 according to Bloch and Wartburg); cadavre in the 16th-century Chronique bordelaise.[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cadāver (“dead body, corpse”), a word attested from the 3rd–2nd century BC.[2][4][3] The ancients rightly connected it with cadō (“to fall; to perish”); the ending is obscure.[4][5] Although old and common, the Latin word was sometimes avoided as too crude, in favour of corpus (“body”) (see corps), and the Romance languages have it only in learned forms.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marguerite de Navarre has cadaver before 1550 for the body of a dead man;[2][6] cadavre is found in the 16th-century Chronique bordelaise.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

French shares the Latin reluctance: corps is usually preferred, and cadavre is kept for anatomy, police contexts and metaphors.[4][5] Already in Latin, in Sulpicius Rufus, it was said of a ruined town, and so in Bossuet (before 1704); Jean-Baptiste Rousseau used it of a tree (before 1741).[2][4]

Familiar French has cadavre ambulant “walking corpse”, a pale, emaciated person (1835), and cadavre for an emptied bottle (1901, Aristide Bruant).[4][6] The cadavre exquis (1927) is a surrealist game, named after the first sentence obtained by collective, random composition: le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.[4] The derivatives are few: cadavéreux (1546, Rabelais) and cadavérique (1787).[4][3]

Timeline

  • before 1550 – Cadaver, in Marguerite de Navarre.[2]
  • 16th century – Cadavre, in the Chronique bordelaise.[2]
  • 1546 – Cadavéreux, in Rabelais.[3][4]
  • before 1704 – Of a ruined town, in Bossuet.[2]
  • 1787 – Cadavérique.[3][4]
  • 1835 – Cadavre ambulant.[4]
  • 1901 – An empty bottle, in Bruant.[4]
  • 1927 – The surrealist game cadavre exquis.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A dead body, corpse, especially of a person or a large animal (a blunt word, often replaced by corps).[5][1]
  2. (familiar) Cadavre ambulant: a pale, emaciated person.[6][4]
  3. (slang) An empty bottle.[6][1]
  4. Cadavre exquis: the surrealist game of consequences.[4][1]

Word family

  • cadavérique
  • cadavéreux

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 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
  3. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cadavre.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/cadavre. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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