chimie

Forms

chimie f (plural chimies)^[1] Middle French chymie (1554), the usual spelling until the 18th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin chimia (13th century), also spelled chymia, “the art of transforming metals”.^[5][2][3][6] Rey calls the Latin word a doublet of alchimia, the form that passed through Arabic and took on the Arabic article (French alchimie);^[2] the Grand Robert, the GLLF, Picoche and Wiktionary take the shorter Latin form as drawn from the longer one.^[4][7][8][1]

The further origin is disputed.^[2][5] The TLFi and Bloch and Wartburg trace the Latin word to a Greek word for the smelting of ore; the spelling with ⟨y⟩ came from confusion with a Greek word for a mixture of juices.^[5][3][9] Rey judges the link with Greek words for “fusion” generally abandoned and thinks a borrowing from a Late Greek word for “black magic”, formed on the Egyptian name of “black”, more likely;^[2] the Petit Robert follows this view but calls the Greek word Semitic in origin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

An isolated record of 1356, in an account of the wax used pour faire chimie for the images of an altar, has an obscure sense, perhaps “mixture”, and may be another word.^[5][9] The science that studies the make-up of bodies is first named chymie in 1554, in B. Aneau's Trésor de Evonime;^[5] Cotgrave in 1611 still calls it the second part of alchimie.^[5]

Semantic evolution

At first chimie was not clearly told apart from alchemy, and was not until the 17th century.^[2] From then on alchemy gave way to chemistry, as experiments lost their symbolic and magical aims and their results became open to the uninitiated; from the 18th century, above all with Lavoisier, chemistry became the science of the transformation of matter.^[2] In the 19th century it divided into branches named by phrases (chimie minérale, chimie organique) and by compounds such as électrochimie (1826) and biochimie (1842).^[2][5] The word also took the figurative sense of a deep and secret transformation, close to that of alchimie.^[2][10]

Timeline

• 1356 – Chimie is recorded in an obscure sense.^[5][2]
• 1548 – First record of chimiste.^[3][2]
• 1554 – Chymie names the science, in Aneau.^[5][4]
• 1587 – First record of chimique.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave calls it the second part of alchemy.^[5]
• 1794 – Condorcet writes of chimie expérimentale.^[5]
• 1826 – Électrochimie is formed.^[2]
• 1842 – Biochimie is formed.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Chemistry, the science of the make-up of substances, their reactions and properties: chimie minérale, chimie organique.^[10][5]
2. (figurative) A deep, hidden transformation, as in alchimie.^[10][2]

Word family

• chimique
• chimiste
• chimiquement
• biochimie
• électrochimie
• photochimie

Related words

• alchimie
• Medieval Latin chimia

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 n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 93b
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
9. ^ a b Hatzfeld, Adolphe; Darmesteter, Arsène; Thomas, Antoine (1890–1900), Dictionnaire général de la langue française du commencement du XVIIe siècle jusqu'à nos jours, Paris: Delagrave
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert