Etymologically
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chaleur

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʃa.lœʁ/[1]

Forms

chaleur f (plural chaleurs)[1] Old French chalur, chalour, chalor, Picard caleur and caure.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French chalor, inherited from Latin calor (“heat, warmth; ardour”), accusative “calōrem”, from caleō (“to be warm”), the source of Old French chaloir (“to matter”).[4][2][5][1][6] The TLFi treats it as taken from Latin “calor”, whose senses it follows closely.[7] Littré points out that Old Picard “caure” continues the Latin nominative “cálor”, stressed on the first syllable, while “chaleur” continues the accusative “calórem”.[3][8]

Cognate with Italian calore, Spanish calor, Catalan calor and Occitan calor.[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psautier de Cambridge (early 12th century) speaks of the chalur of the sun: the state of matter at a high temperature.[7][2]

Semantic evolution

About 1220 it was also the feeling of heat in illness, and in Nicot (1606) les grandes chaleurs are the summer.[7][4] Gaston Phébus's Livre de la chasse (1387–1391) uses it for the mating season of animals, and être en chaleur “to be in heat” dates from 1561.[7][4]

Figuratively it meant vitality and enthusiasm from 1549 (Robert Estienne), and in classical French also violent passion; today it suggests warmth of feeling, as in chaleureux.[7][4] The scientific notion took shape in the 17th and 18th centuries, with chaleur latente and chaleur spécifique (1789).[4]

Timeline

  • early 12th century – Chalur of the sun, Psautier de Cambridge.[7]
  • c. 1220 – The feeling of heat in illness.[7]
  • 1387–1391 – The mating season, Gaston Phébus.[7]
  • 1549 – “Enthusiasm”, Robert Estienne.[7]
  • 1561 – Être en chaleur.[7]
  • 1606 – Les grandes chaleurs, Nicot.[7]
  • 1789 – Chaleur spécifique.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. heat, warmth: la chaleur du soleil, une chaleur étouffante, (plural) hot weather: les grandes chaleurs.[9][1]
  2. (physics) Heat as a form of energy: chaleur spécifique.[10][4]
  3. A feeling of heat in the body: bouffées de chaleur.[7][9]
  4. En chaleur: in heat (of female animals).[7][1]
  5. (figurative) Warmth, ardour, fervour: la chaleur de l'accueil, dans la chaleur de la discussion.[4][9]

Word family

  • chaleureux

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 101b
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse