faisceau

Forms

faisceau m (plural faisceaux)^[1] Old French faissel and fassel; the modern form faisceau is a remaking recorded in 1549.^[2][3] The plural faisiaus is found in the Naissance du Chevalier au cygne.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French faissel, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fascellus, a diminutive formed on fascis (“bundle tied with a cord, faggot, burden”).^{[5][6][2][7][1]} The Latin noun is also the source of faix.^[5][2] Bloch and Wartburg note that the diminutive survives only in French.^[7] In the vocabulary of Roman antiquity the French word serves to translate the Latin plural.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded at the end of the 12th century, in the Naissance du Chevalier au cygne, for a bundle of long things tied together.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a bundle of long objects bound lengthwise became the main one from the 17th century.^[2] As a term of Roman antiquity the plural names the rods tied round an axe and carried by the lictors before a high magistrate (1662, Corneille), and the word was taken up again for the emblem of Fascism in Italy, modelled on the Roman one.^[2][4]

From the 19th century it was applied to other groupings: rifles stacked in a pyramid (1851), rays of light and, in physics, beams (1865, then in the 20th century faisceau hertzien and faisceau d'électrons), and sets of curves in mathematics (1904).^[2][4] The figurative sense of a set of abstract things, as in faisceau de preuves, is found in Balzac in 1835.^[2][4]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – Faisiaus appears in the Naissance du Chevalier au cygne.^[5][4]
• 1549 – The form faisceau is recorded by R. Estienne.^[2][4]
• 1662 – Corneille uses the plural for the Roman fasces.^[2][4]
• 1835 – Balzac uses it of a set of abstract things.^[2][4]
• 1851 – It is used of rifles stacked in a pyramid.^[2][4]
• 1865 – It enters the vocabulary of physics.^[2]
• 1904 – It is first used in mathematics.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bundle of similar long objects tied together lengthwise.^[8][5]
2. (Roman antiquity) In the plural, the fasces, rods tied round an axe and carried by the lictors as a sign of a magistrate's authority; also the similar emblem of Italian fascism.^[8]
3. A pyramid of rifles leaning against one another: former les faisceaux.^[8]
4. A beam of light or of radiation: faisceau lumineux, faisceau laser.^[8]
5. (anatomy, botany) A fascicle or bundle of fibres or tissue elements: faisceau nerveux.^[8]
6. (mathematics) A family of lines or curves depending on a parameter.^[8]
7. A set of abstract elements brought together: un faisceau de preuves.^[8]

Related words

• fasciste
• faix
• fascisme
• Latin fascis

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 428b
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert