Etymologically
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capillaire

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ka.pi.lɛʁ/[1]

Forms

capillaire (plural capillaires)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin capillāris (“of the hair”),[2][3][4][5] an imperial Latin derivative of capillus (“hair”),[2] the source of the inherited cheveu.[1] In Late Latin it was used in botany (“capillaris herba”).[3] The fern name (1579) is a second borrowing of the Latin word.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The surgeon Henri de Mondeville uses it in 1314 for veins “fine as a hair”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

It was first a term of anatomy for what is as fine as a hair, vaisseaux capillaires “capillary vessels” is recorded in 1732, and the noun les capillaires for these vessels followed.[3] The sense passed into physics and chemistry (tube capillaire).[3][6] Ambroise Paré used capillaires for ferns with fine hair-like stalks in the 16th century.[6][7]

The general Latin sense “of the hair” was taken up again in the 19th century (1838, Eugène Sue in 1842–1843),[8][2] and is now common in the hairdressing trade (lotion capillaire, artiste capillaire “hairdresser”).[3][9] The derivative capillarité dates from 1820.[4][3]

Timeline

  • 1314 – Mondeville's “fine as a hair”.[2]
  • 1579 – Paré names ferns capillaires.[3]
  • 1732 – Vaisseaux capillaires.[3]
  • 1820 – Capillarité.[4]
  • 1838 – “Of the hair”: bulbes capillaires.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (anatomy) Of the finest blood vessels: vaisseaux capillaires.[10][11]
  2. Very fine, like a hair: tube capillaire, (physics) of capillarity.[9][10]
  3. Of the hair of the head: lotion capillaire.[9][10]

Noun

  1. A capillary vessel.[9][1]
  2. A fern with fine leaf stalks, such as maidenhair.[10][7]

Word family

  • capillarité

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e 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 f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 250a
  6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)