calibrer

Forms

calibrer^[1] Rabelais spells the past participle qualibree (1552).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a verb formed from French calibre + -er.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary instead derives it from Italian calibrare.^[1] The noun (1478) is from Arabic قَالِب (qālib, “mould”),^[6][1] which Bloch and Wartburg gloss as a mould for casting metal or a shoemaker's last.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first attested in 1552, as the past participle used as an adjective, in Rabelais's Quart livre: an iron ball bien qualibree loaded into a bronze cannon, that is, given the required calibre.^[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was “to give the proper calibre or dimensions to”.^[2][7] The figurative sense “to proportion” appears in Boiste's dictionary in 1819, and the sense “to measure the calibre of something” in Bescherelle in 1845;^[2][7] the GLLF also dates to 1845 the sense “to sort by size”, as of fruit.^[5] In printing it came to mean estimating how much space a text will take once set.^[7][2]

The verb gave calibrage (1838), calibreur (1845) and, in physics, calibration (in dictionaries from 1963).^[7]

Timeline

• 1478 – The noun calibre is first recorded.^[2][6]
• 1552 – Rabelais uses the participle qualibree “of the right calibre”.^[2]
• 1819 – Boiste records the figurative sense “to proportion”.^[2][7]
• 1838 – The derivative calibrage appears.^[7]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense “to measure the calibre of”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To give something the proper calibre or dimensions: calibrer des obus.^[8][5][3]
2. To measure the calibre or dimensions of something; to calibrate.^[2][8][1]
3. To sort or grade by size: calibrer des pommes.^[8][5][1]
4. (printing) To estimate the number of characters, lines and pages a text will fill before it is set.^[8][2][5]
5. (figurative) To adjust, proportion.^[2][7]

Word family

• calibrage
• calibreur

Related words

• calibre

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 i j k l m 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert