crevasse

Forms

crevasse f (plural crevasses)^[1] Old French cravace (about 1120) and crevace; the spelling crevasse dates from the 16th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French crever + -asse.^[2][5][4] Rey, the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert derive it instead from Late Latin crepacia, a noun of the same meaning formed on crepō (“to crack, burst”), the source of crever.^[3][6][7] Wiktionary gives the Old French form as crevace.^[1]

Compare Old Occitan crebassa.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1120, in the plural cravaces, in the Psautier d'Oxford, for the floodgates of heaven; about the same time Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire uses cravace for a crack in a stone.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From its first use for a crack or fissure the word came to name, generally, a narrow and deep opening in the surface of something: a wall, the ground, rock.^[3][2] Medicine took it up for cracks in the skin caused by cold, age or hard work, recorded in Ambroise Paré in 1575;^[3][2] the GLLF dates this sense to Robert Estienne in 1552.^[4] Littré also records it as a veterinary term for cracks at the pastern of horses and asses.^[8]

The sense “deep crack in a glacier”, now one of the commonest, is first dated to Alphonse Daudet in 1885.^[4][9] The verb crevasser “to crack, fissure” followed, first as cravacier (about 1300) and crevaçier (about 1360), which gave crevassement (1893).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Cravaces appears in the Psautier d'Oxford.^[2]
• c. 1120 – Philippe de Thaon uses cravace for a crack in a stone.^[2]
• c. 1300 – The verb cravacier, later crevasser, is recorded.^[3]
• 1552 – Robert Estienne records the sense “crack in the skin”.^[4]
• 1575 – Ambroise Paré uses crevasses in medicine.^[2][3]
• 1885 – Daudet uses it of a crack in a glacier.^[4][9]
• 1893 – First record of crevassement.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep crack or fissure in the surface of something: une crevasse dans le plafond.^[7][10][11]
2. A narrow, deep crack in a glacier, a crevasse.^[7][10][11]
3. (chiefly in the plural) A small crack in the skin, often caused by cold; a chap.^[7][11][10]
4. (veterinary) An inflamed crack in the skin at the pastern of horses and cattle.^[10][8]

Word family

• crevasser
• crevassement

Related words

• crever
• Latin crepō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)