fluidité

Forms

fluidité f (plural fluidités)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French fluide + -ité.^[2][3][4][5] The adjective is from Latin fluidus, from fluō (“to flow”).^[4] Wiktionary instead treats it as borrowed from Latin fluiditās.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It was first used figuratively, in 1548, in Étienne de La Planche's translation of Tacitus: Ceste resonance et fluidité de Q. Haterius fut estaincte avec sa personne “this resonance and fluency of Quintus Haterius died with him”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, the quality of what flows, is found in Cyrano de Bergerac's la fluidité de l'onde (1649);^[2][6] the GLLF dates it from Pascal in 1648.^[5] Furetière in 1690 recorded the ease with which a liquid flows without turbulence, the opposite of viscosity.^[5][7]

Later figurative senses follow those of the adjective: the steady flow of road traffic (fluidité de la circulation, 1967), the ease of a style or of speech, the elusive, shifting character of a situation, and in economics a market in which supply and demand adjust to each other easily.^[6][5][7][8] English took fluidity about 1600, from the French word or as an English formation.^[9]

Timeline

• 1548 – First recorded, figuratively, in La Planche's translation of Tacitus.^[2][6]
• 1565 – Tahureau uses it;^[4][5][3] Bloch and Wartburg's date.^[4][5][3]
• c. 1600 – English fluidity appears.^[9]
• 1648 – Pascal uses it of the quality of fluids.^[5]
• 1649 – Cyrano de Bergerac writes la fluidité de l'onde.^[2][6]
• 1690 – Furetière records the ease of a liquid's flow.^[5]
• 1967 – Fluidité de la circulation is used of road traffic.^[6][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or quality of being fluide; in physics, the opposite of viscosity.^[2][7][8]
2. The regular flow of traffic: la fluidité de la circulation.^[7][8][6]
3. (figurative) Ease and smoothness of speech, style or music.^[7]
4. (figurative) A changing, elusive character, hard to pin down.^[7][8]
5. (economics) The state of a market in which supply and demand adjust easily to each other.^[7][8][10]

Related words

• fluide
• fluidifier
• fluidique
• Latin fluidus
• English fluidity

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)