cutané

Forms

cutané (feminine cutanée, masculine plural cutanés, feminine plural cutanées)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin cutis (“skin”), a learned formation with the suffix -ané, made after the compounds Late Latin intercutaneus and subcutaneus.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun was displaced in French by the inherited peau.^[3]

Rey traces the Latin noun to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *(s)keut- (“skin”), also behind Greek words for worked leather and for a covering or cavity, the source of the French element cyto-.^[3] He thinks its first sense was “outer covering” (of a fruit, of the earth), while the sense “leather for cutting” belonged to corium, the source of cuir.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1546 in Charles Estienne's treatise on the parts of the body, in muscle de peau ou cutané “skin or cutaneous muscle”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its learned, chiefly anatomical and medical use: it qualifies what relates to the skin, lies at the level of the skin or is made of skin.^[3][2] The compound sous-cutané followed in 1753,^[4][3] and the Latin diminutive cuticula had already been borrowed as cuticule in 1532.^[3]

Timeline

• 1546 – Cutané appears in Charles Estienne's anatomical treatise.^[2][4]
• 1753 – The compound sous-cutané is recorded.^[4][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (anatomy) Relating to or belonging to the skin, cutaneous: une maladie cutanée “a skin disease”.^[7][6][8]
2. (anatomy) Situated at the level of the skin: les vaisseaux cutanés du pied.^[2]
3. (anatomy) Formed of skin: un repli cutané “a fold of skin”.^[2]

Word family

• sous-cutané

Related words

• cuticule
• Latin cutis

References

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