disloquer

Forms

disloquer^[1] The popular Old French verb it replaced was desloer, also desloier and deslouer.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin dislocō (“to put out of joint”), a word of medieval medicine recorded about 1250,^[2][5][6] formed from dis-, marking separation, and locō (“to place, set”),^[5][6] from locus (“place”).^[6][3] Bloch and Wartburg note the older medical Latin dēlocō, also from the same noun.^[4] Wiktionary instead takes the French verb as a back-formation from dislocation.^[1]

The French verb is the learned doublet of Old French desloer (“to dislocate”), recorded from Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval (1168–1191) to the 16th century^[2] and listed until Cotgrave in 1611,^[5][3] which came from Vulgar Latin *dislocō;^[2][4] the learned word drove it out.^[5][4] The same popular form gave Old Occitan deslogar.^[4] Cognate with Spanish dislocar, Portuguese deslocar and Italian dislocare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is a medical use in Robert Estienne's Latin–French dictionary of 1546;^[2] Bloch and Wartburg and the Robert date it to 1545.^[4][6][8] Ambroise Paré writes of midwives who disloquent les jointures de l'espaule “dislocate the shoulder joints” when pulling children's arms.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the verb was also used figuratively for breaking up the unity of a whole by scattering its parts: Montaigne (1580) wrote that his soul seroit incontinent disloquée by such inner agitation.^[2][5][7] The concrete sense “to separate violently” followed in 1842, in Balzac,^[2][5] with a stress on the disorder or violence of the act.^[5] The pronominal se disloquer is recorded from 1831, in Hugo.^[2][5] In military language, disloquer une armée meant to spread its corps among their quarters, recorded by Boiste in 1829.^[9][7]

The noun dislocation, borrowed earlier (1314) from medieval medical Latin, followed the same path, though in surgery it gave way to luxation.^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1546 – First record of disloquer, in a medical sense, in Robert Estienne.^[2]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it figuratively of the soul.^[2][5]
• 1611 – Cotgrave still lists the old desloer.^[3][5]
• 1829 – Boiste records the military sense.^[9]
• 1831 – Hugo uses se disloquer.^[2]
• 1842 – Balzac uses it for “to separate violently”.^[2][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put a limb or bone out of joint, to dislocate: Il s'est disloqué le genou en tombant.^[8][2][1]
2. To force the parts of a thing out of their place, to break it apart: disloquer une machine, disloquer un meuble.^[8][2][3]
3. (figurative) To break up the unity of a whole, to dismember a state, a group or an empire.^[2][3]
4. Se disloquer: to come apart, of an object, or to disperse, of a procession or a crowd.^[2][7]
5. (military, dated) To spread an army's units among their quarters.^[7][9]

Related words

• dislocation
• lieu¹
• louer²
• Latin locus

Usage notes

Ambroise Paré also used delouer in the same sense, which Littré compares with Latin delocare.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF