densité

Forms

densité f (plural densités)^[1] Middle French dempsité.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēnsitās (“thickness”), first recorded in the form dempsité about 1390.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun comes from dēnsus (“thick, dense”).^[3][5][6] Wiktionary instead treats dempsité as an Old French borrowing from Latin and the modern word as its descendant.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1390 (in a 15th-century manuscript) in Évrart de Conty's Problèmes d'Aristote, in dempsité de la char, the thickness or compactness of flesh.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the same path as the adjective dense.^[4] From “thickness, compactness” it became a term of physics at the start of the 18th century (1703), the ratio of a body's mass to its volume or to that of a reference body; chemists spoke of the densité de la vapeur in 1827 and of the densité des gaz in 1833.^[2][4] It entered electricity in 1890 and later electronics.^[2][4]

In the 20th century it gained the sense of population per unit of area, densité de population.^[7][6] It is also used figuratively of what is rich and concentrated in content.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – Dempsité “thickness, compactness” in Évrart de Conty.^[2][4]
• 16th century – Paré speaks of the densité of fat and of the skin.^[5]
• 1703 – First used in physics for specific weight.^[2][4]
• 1827 – Gay-Lussac and Dulong write of densité de la vapeur.^[2][4]
• 1833 – Mitscherlich writes of densité des gaz.^[2][4]
• 1890 – Densité électrique is recorded.^[2][4]
• 20th century – Densité de population “inhabitants per unit of area”.^[7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being dense, thickness, compactness: la densité de la fumée.^[7][8][2]
2. Densité de population: the average number of inhabitants per unit of area, usually per square kilometre.^[7][8][6]
3. (physics) The ratio of the mass of a body to that of the same volume of a reference body (water for solids and liquids, air for gases), relative density.^[7][8]
4. (electricity) Densité de courant: current density.^[7]
5. (figurative) Richness or concentration of content.^[8]

Related words

• dense
• densifier
• Latin dēnsitās

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 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 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 i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)