culmination

Forms

culmination f (plural culminations)^[1]

Etymology

Rey and the Grand Robert make it borrowed from Late Latin culminātiō,^[2][3] while the TLFi forms it in French with the suffix -ion on the stem of culminātum, the supine of culminō (“to crown, top”).^[4][5] The verb comes from Latin culmen (“top, summit”).^[5][6] Etymonline calls the noun a contraction of columen (“top, summit”), from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to be prominent”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is figurative, in Béroalde de Verville's Le Moyen de parvenir (about 1610), meaning “summit, superiority”.^[4][2] The GLLF dates this use to 1593 and glosses it “intellectual superiority”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word became above all a term of astronomy, recorded in the supplement to the Dictionnaire de Trévoux in 1752,^[4][2][5] for a star's passage across its highest point above the horizon and the moment of that passage.^[7] Proust used it, rarely, for the highest point of a landform.^[4][5] Two other rare nouns of the same sense were later formed in French, culminaison (1910) and culminance (1911, Tristan Bernard).^[2]

English culmination is recorded from the 1630s in astronomy, from the French word.^[6]

Timeline

• 1593 – Béroalde de Verville uses it for intellectual superiority, the date the GLLF gives.^[5]
• c. 1610 – Figurative use in Le Moyen de parvenir.^[4][2]
• 1630s – English borrows it as an astronomical term.^[6]
• 1752 – The supplement to Trévoux records the astronomical sense.^[4][5]
• 1913 – Proust uses it for the summit of a rock.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (astronomy) The passage of a celestial body across its highest point above the horizon; also the moment of this passage.^[8][9][7][5]
2. (astronomy) Either of the two points of a place's meridian that a star crosses each day in its daily motion.^[10]
3. (rare) The highest point, the summit of a landform.^[4][5]

Related words

• culminer
• culminant
• culmen
• culminaison
• culminance
• English culmination

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)