engloutir

Forms

engloutir^[1] Old French englotir and engloutir.^[2][1] Anglo-Norman also has englouter.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French englotir, inherited from Late Latin ingluttiō (“to swallow”).^[4][5][6][7] The Late Latin verb is made of in- and gluttiō (“to swallow”), and the simple verb is derived from gluttus (“gullet”), the source also of glouton and déglutir.^[6][8] Rey connects that noun with an Indo-European root meaning “to swallow”, probably imitative.^[6] Wiktionary also allows a French formation from the prefix en- and Old French glotir.^[1]

Littré notes that the verb was at first conjugated like partir, not like the inchoative verbs.^[9]

Cognate with Italian inghiottire, Old Occitan englotir and Catalan englutir, from which the Spanish form was taken.^[10][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) has anglutet “swallows up”, of the earth swallowing the dead: “Ne guardent l'ure que terre nes anglutet” (“they expect the hour when the earth will swallow them up”); the TLFi brackets this record because it is the reading of one manuscript that does not fit the assonance.^[9][4] The sense “to devour, swallow greedily” is dated 1193–1197, in Hélinant's Vers de la mort.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use came very early, as Bloch and Wartburg note.^[7] From “to gulp down” the verb went on to mean “to stuff someone with food” (1530), a use now lost.^[6] About 1460 it meant “to make something disappear suddenly”, as the sea or a chasm does.^[6][2] From 1653 it also meant “to spend fast”, of a fortune.^[6] The pronominal s'engloutir “to sink, vanish into a gulf” is recorded before 1781.^[6]

The English verb englut goes back to the Anglo-Norman form.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Anglutet in one manuscript of the Vie de saint Alexis.^[4][6]
• 1193–1197 – Hélinant uses it for “to swallow greedily”.^[4]
• c. 1460 – Georges Chastellain uses it figuratively, “to make disappear”.^[2]
• 15th century – The derivative engloutissement appears.^[6][7]
• 1530 – It means “to stuff someone with food”.^[6]
• 1653 – First recorded as “to spend fast”.^[6]
• before 1781 – The pronominal s'engloutir.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gulp down, devour greedily: Il engloutit son repas en trois minutes.^[4][11][12]
2. To swallow up, engulf; make disappear in a mass or depth: La mer a englouti le navire.^[2][9]
3. (figurative) To spend fast, squander; of a thing, to use up money or resources: Ce chantier a englouti toutes ses économies.^[12][13]
4. S'engloutir: to sink, be swallowed up.^[9]

Word family

• engloutissement

Related words

• glouton
• déglutir
• Latin gluttus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 172a
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert