fantôme

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fɑ̃.tom/^[1]

Forms

fantôme m (plural fantômes)^[1] Old French fantosme;^[2][3] fantôme from 1671 (Pomey).^[2][3] The spelling phantôme was noted in 1740 but judged out of use by Féraud.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fantosme, from a southern Vulgar Latin *fantauma that came from the Greek of Marseille.^[3][4][5] The TLFi and the FEW start from Ancient Greek *phantagma, an Ionic form corresponding to Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma, “apparition, vision; image; ghost”), which imperial Latin took over as phantasma; it was altered at Marseille, through which the word entered the Latin of Gaul.^[4][6][7] Old Occitan had fantauma too.^[7][8] Wiktionary gives the simpler chain through Latin, with the TLFi's Massaliot route as an alternative.^[1]

The Greek noun belongs to φαίνω (phaínō, “to show; to appear”), the family of fantasme, fantaisie and phénomène.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman d'Eneas (about 1160) speaks of a tree whose leaves hang with dreams, de fantosmes et de mençonges: a deceptive image or illusion.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1165 it named the supernatural apparition of a dead person.^[4][3] It was extended to an imaginary idea or being (1586) and to a very thin person or animal (1690, Furetière), with Ronsard's un fantosme de corps in the mid-16th century.^[3][2] Rabelais (1534) uses phantosme for a dummy put in a horse's hay to accustom it to corpses.^[8][2]

From 1644 (Corneille) it is said of a person who has only the appearance of what he should be, and in the 20th century it took technical senses, such as the card that marks the place of a book taken from a shelf (1906).^[2][3] Derivatives include fantomatique (1807) and the literary fantomal (1883).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1160 – Fantosme “illusion” in the Roman d'Eneas.^[4]
• 1165 – “Ghost of a dead person” in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[4]
• 1534 – Rabelais uses it for a dummy.^[8][2]
• 1586 – “Imaginary being or idea”.^[3]
• 1671 – The spelling fantôme in Pomey.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière: a very thin person.^[3][2]
• 1807 – The adjective fantomatique.^[3]
• 1906 – The library card marking a missing book.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ghost, the supernatural apparition of a dead person.^[9][1]
2. By extension, a very thin, emaciated person or animal.^[9][8]
3. (figurative) Something that has only the appearance of a person or thing; a semblance: un fantôme de roi.^[9][10]
4. A person or thing that haunts the mind or memory: les fantômes du passé.^[10]
5. An imaginary idea, a chimera.^[8][2]
6. (apposition) Existing in name only: un gouvernement fantôme.^[9]

Related words

• fantasme
• fantaisie
• Ancient Greek φάντασμα (phántasma)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 364b
7. ^ a b 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)