diane

Forms

diane f (plural dianes)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Italian diana (“drumroll to wake the troops”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Italian word first meant “the first hour of the day” and “the morning star”, and is taken from Latin Diāna (“Diana”), the name of the goddess, properly “the shining one”.^[2][3] The TLFi supports this with the other Italian military words that Ronsard lists beside it.^[2] Rey thinks the Latin name is probably derived from diēs (“day”).^[3]

Most etymological dictionaries instead give diana, derived from día (“day”): so Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF.^[2][6][7] The TLFi and Rey object that the Spanish word is not recorded before 1605, in “Don Quixote”.^[2][3] The Italian word itself is dated 1585 by the TLFi and the Grand Robert and 1561 by Rey.^[2][4][3] Littré cites both the Spanish word and Italian stella diana (“morning star”), from an old adjective meaning “of the day”.^[8] The FEW files it under the same Latin word for “day”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1555, in a list of military words in Ronsard's Meslanges: Qui ne sait quel mot c'est que cargue, camisade, Sentinelle, Diane, escarmoche, embuscade “who doesn't know what the words cargue, camisade, sentry, reveille, skirmish, ambush mean”.^[2][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The word named a drumbeat, and by extension a bugle or trumpet call, sounded at daybreak to wake soldiers and sailors.^[3][2][7] In the 16th century it also meant the dawn hour itself, as in arriver à la diane “to arrive at daybreak” and bailler la diane “to attack at dawn”.^[8][7] By metonymy it is also the time when reveille is sounded.^[2][7]

Writers used it figuratively for a wake-up call, as when Hugo speaks of the trumpet of the Last Judgement sounding the diane effrayante des morts (1859).^[2] The word is growing old and is now mostly literary.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1555 – Ronsard lists diane among military words.^[2][6]
• 16th century – La Noue and d'Aubigné use à la diane “at daybreak”.^[8]
• 1585 – The Italian diana is recorded in this sense, in Garzoni.^[2][4]
• 1605 – Spanish diana appears in Don Quixote.^[2][3]
• 1859 – Hugo uses it figuratively in La Légende des siècles.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (military, dated or literary) reveille, a drum beat or bugle call at daybreak to wake soldiers or sailors: battre la diane, sonner la diane.^[2][5][4]
2. The time at which reveille is sounded: se lever à la diane.^[2][7]
3. (figurative) A call to wake up or to set to work.^[2]

Related words

• Diane
• diurne
• jour
• Italian diana

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has two other words diane: a rare literary noun for a virgin girl, recorded in the 19th century (Hugo, 1865) and taken from the name of the goddess, and a zoological name for a large African monkey, recorded in 1830, whose origin it calls obscure, since the goddess's name fits it badly.^[4] Littré lists the monkey under Diane, the name of the goddess.^[8]

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 l m n o p q 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 72b