catarrhe

Forms

catarrhe m (plural catarrhes)^[1] Older forms cathar (late 14th century), quaterre (1491) and caterre (16th century); the etymological form won out late.^[2][3] Caterre was the usual form in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[4] Middle French also wrote catarre.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin catarrhus, a medical word of the same sense recorded from the late 4th or 5th century, which is from Ancient Greek κατάρροος (katárroos), a word used in this sense since Hippocrates.^[3][2][4][6] The Greek word, also meaning a flow of humours, is a noun use of an adjective “flowing down”, from καταρρέω (katarréō, “to flow down”), formed from κατά (katá, “down”) and ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”).^[2][7]

Cognate with Occitan catar, Spanish catarro and Italian catarro.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1370 in a French version of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie, as a medical term for a flux of humours, a cold.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The medical term passed into common speech by the 15th century for the flow of bad humours from the nose, which was thought to come down from the brain;^[2] Commynes described the illness of Charles VIII as un caterre ou apoplexie.^[7] When that explanation was given up in the 19th century, though rhume de cerveau survives from it, catarrhe became the general name for any inflammation of a mucous membrane, specified by an adjective: catarrhe pulmonaire for bronchitis, catarrhe vésical for cystitis.^[2]

Littré notes that the whole 17th century said caterre, as Bouhours remarked.^[7] The term is now dated in medicine, and in everyday speech it means a heavy cold.^[3][8][7]

Timeline

• c. 1370 – First record, in Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[3][2]
• Late 14th century – The form cathar appears.^[3][2]
• 1478 – Catarrheux is borrowed from Late Latin catarrhosus.^[2]
• 1491 – The form quaterre is recorded.^[2]
• 1503 – The adjective catarrhal is recorded.^[3][2][4]
• 19th century – It becomes a general term for inflammation of a mucous membrane.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine, dated) Catarrh: inflammation of a mucous membrane with heavy secretion, especially in the airways: un catarrhe pulmonaire.^[3][8][7]
2. (familiar) A heavy cold.^[3][7][9]

Word family

• catarrhal

Related words

• catarrheux
• rhume
• -rrhée

Usage notes

The Petit Robert notes the homophone cathare.^[8] The Larousse gives catarrhe nasal as a dated synonym of coryza.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 493a
7. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)