diagramme

Forms

diagramme m (plural diagrammes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin diagramma (“scale of tones, drawing”),^[2][3][4][5] which is from Ancient Greek διάγραμμα (diágramma, “anything described by drawing or writing”),^[2][4] from διαγράφω (diagráphō, “to mark out by lines, describe in detail”),^[2][4][6] itself from διά (diá) and γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[4][7] In Latin the word meant the scale of tones in music under the Empire, and a tracing or drawing in Late Latin.^[2][4] Wiktionary instead takes it from Italian diagramma.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1584, in Du Monin's Uranologie, in an astronomical context (diagramme comparatif).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In music it named a table of all the sounds of a system, but the word was rare before Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique (1767).^[4][9] Taken up again, it came to mean any graphic representation in the sciences and in economics, competing with graphique;^[4] the GLLF dates the present senses to Larousse in 1888.^[8] English diagram (1610s) comes from the French word.^[6]

Timeline

• 1584 – Du Monin uses diagramme in his Uranologie.^[2][8]
• 1610s – English diagram is taken from French.^[6]
• 1767 – Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique uses it of the scale of sounds.^[4][9][8]
• 1888 – Larousse records the modern senses.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A simplified geometric drawing of the parts of a whole and of how they are arranged, a sketch or schéma; in botany, diagramme floral.^[10][11][5]
2. A chart, a graph, showing the course and variations of one or more phenomena, or how a system works.^[10][11][12]
3. (music, dated) A table showing all the sounds of a musical system.^[2][7]

Related words

• programme
• anagramme
• épigramme

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
6. ^ a b c 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. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)