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cardiaque

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Etymology and origin of the French word cardiaque

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1372 Corbichon, Propriétés des choses More words from the 14th century
Borrowed from
Latin cardiacus
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek καρδία
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek καρδία (kardía)
Ancient Greek καρδιακός (kardiakós)
Latin cardiacus
English cardiac
French cardiaque
Romanian cardiac
The word's journey

Forms

cardiaque (plural cardiaques)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cardiacus, which in Classical Latin meant “suffering from the stomach”.[2][3] From the 4th–5th century the Latin word also meant “of the heart” and “sick at heart”.[2][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek καρδιακός (kardiakós), from καρδία (kardía, “heart, stomach”).[2][3][1] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert take the French word straight from the Greek, since the Latin had another sense.[4][5][6] Rey connects the Greek noun with the Indo-European root of cœur.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean Corbichon used it in 1372, in his translation of the Propriétés des choses, in the sense “relating to the heart”.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 14th century the adjective also meant “having a heart disease”.[2] The noun named a remedy for the heart in Ambroise Paré (1590), a sense now dated: le vin, lequel est très souverain cardiaque.[2][3][8] A person with a heart disease has been un cardiaque since 1892.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1372 – Corbichon uses it for “relating to the heart”.[2][4]
  • late 14th century – The Jardin de santé uses it for “suffering from the heart”.[2]
  • 1590 – Paré uses the noun for a heart remedy.[2][3]
  • 1892 – The noun names a person with heart disease.[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to the heart; cardiac: le muscle cardiaque, une crise cardiaque “a heart attack”.[6][9][1]
  2. Suffering from a heart disease: Son voisin est cardiaque.[6][9]

Noun

  1. A person with a heart disease.[6][2]
  2. (dated) A remedy for the heart.[2][7]
  3. (feminine) motherwort, a plant of the genus Leonurus; also called agripaume.[10]

Usage notes

The Grand Robert treats as a separate adjective the sense “of the cardia”, the upper opening of the stomach, which it dates to Cuvier in 1805.[5] Littré gives this sense under the same word, as in l'orifice cardiaque de l'estomac.[8]

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 h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Cardiaque.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/cardiaque. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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