caractéristique

Forms

caractéristique f (plural caractéristiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek χαρακτηριστικός (kharaktēristikós, “serving to distinguish”), recorded in Dionysius of Halicarnassus,^[2][1] a derivative of χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr), the source of caractère.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1550 as a noun in Louis Meigret's Grammaire française, for the letter or element that marks the tense of a verb or the formation of a word.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The grammatical noun gave an adjectival use, lettre caractéristique, recorded by the Académie in 1694.^[2][3] In the 18th century the noun took a mathematical sense (1751, the whole-number part of a logarithm) and the ordinary sense “what characterises something” (1779, Diderot).^[2][3] The adjective likewise widened in 1751, when the Encyclopédie spoke of traits caractéristiques of authors.^[2]

In modern French the noun is common in the plural for the specifications of a machine or product, and the adjective is used in physics and mathematics.^[5]

Timeline

• 1550 – Meigret uses it as a grammatical term.^[2][3]
• 1694 – The Académie records lettre caractéristique.^[2]
• 1751 – The Encyclopédie gives the mathematical sense and the adjective “distinctive”.^[2]
• 1779 – Diderot uses the noun for “what characterises a thing”.^[2][3]
• 1791 – The adverb caractéristiquement is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. characteristic, distinctive: forming a recognisable feature of someone or something: un geste caractéristique.^[5][2]
2. (physics, mathematics) Of a value, equation or property that characterises a function or an object: équation caractéristique.^[5]

Noun

1. A distinguishing feature or trait; in the plural, the specifications of a machine or product.^[5][6]
2. (grammar) The letter or element that marks a tense or a word's formation.^[7][2]
3. (mathematics) The whole-number part of a logarithm.^[2][7]

Word family

• caractéristiquement

Related words

• caractère
• caractériser

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 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 d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette