consistance

Forms

consistance f (plural consistances)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French consister + -ance.^[2][3][4][5] The Trésor keeps this analysis although the noun is recorded before the modern verb,^[2] and Bloch and Wartburg compare the Medieval Latin noun cōnsistentia.^[6] consister is from Latin cōnsistō (“to stand together, stand firm”).^[6]

Littré compares Old Occitan consistencia, Spanish consistencia and Italian consistenza.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Nicole Oresme's Livre du ciel et du monde (1370–1382), as a synonym of “matter”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In 1580 Montaigne used it in the figurative sense of fixity, stability (tant nostre estat est ennemy de consistance).^[2][7] From 1671 it was said of abstract things that have no solid ground (Pomey: the things of the world have no consistance), and before 1741 Saint-Simon wrote of a homme sans consistance.^[2][5] The physical sense, the degree of firmness of a solid or a paste, is recorded by Furetière in 1690, and is now the usual one.^[2][5][4]

Older uses survive in technical language: in law, the parts that make up an estate; in zoology and botany, the stage at which a living being has stopped growing but not yet begun to decline; in forestry, the density of a stand of trees.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1370–1382 – First record, in Oresme, as a synonym of “matter”.^[2][5]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for fixity, stability.^[2][5]
• 1671 – Pomey applies it to abstract things.^[2][4]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “firmness of a solid body”.^[2][4]
• Before 1741 – Saint-Simon writes homme sans consistance.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The consistency of a body: its firmness, the cohesion of its parts, as in la consistance d'une pâte à crêpes.^[8][2]
2. Thickness of a liquid that becomes pasty: prendre consistance, to thicken.^[8]
3. (figurative) Solidity, coherence, firmness, as in une rumeur sans consistance;^[8][7] sans consistance, groundless or spineless.^[8][7]
4. (law, dated) The parts that make up an estate or a property.^[2]
5. (forestry) The density of a stand of trees.^[2]

Related words

• consister
• consistant
• inconsistance
• Latin cōnsistō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert