fondre

Forms

fondre^[1] Old French fondre, also written fundre in early texts.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fondre, inherited from Latin fundō (“to pour out, to melt metal, to scatter, to overthrow”).^[4][5][6][7] Rey traces the Latin verb to an Indo-European root meaning a liquid poured out in abundance, also found in Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “to pour”) and in Germanic words such as German gießen and Old Norse geysir;^[6] Wiktionary gives the chain as Proto-Italic *hundō, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰewd-.^[1] Bloch and Wartburg think that the Old French sense “to destroy, make collapse” is not a natural development of the Latin meaning but comes from a crossing with fond.^[7]

Cognate with Italian fondere, Occitan fondre, Catalan fondre, Spanish hundir and Portuguese fundir.^[7][8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, in the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050), is intransitive and means “to be destroyed, to collapse”.^[4][6] The transitive sense “to pour, shed” follows in the Voyage de saint Brendan (about 1121), with fundent lermes “they shed tears”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The early sense “to collapse” was still recorded in the 18th century, but in the 12th century the verb took on its main modern values.^[6] From “to pour” came the intransitive “to flow” (about 1165), the phrase fondre en larmes “to burst into tears” (about 1223) and the figurative “to soften, be moved” (early 14th century).^[4][6]

Alongside, a technical use grew: “to make by casting in molten metal” (1174–1176) and “to make liquid by heating” (about 1190), then intransitively “to become liquid” (first half of the 13th century), with a specialised use in metallurgy from 1708.^[4][6] In the 13th century it also meant “to combine into a whole”, later used in painting of colours that blend (1685), and “to dissolve in a liquid” is recorded from 1580.^[4][6] Figuratively it came to mean “to grow thin” (late 14th century, Froissart) and “to shrink fast” (1575).^[4][6]

Fondre sur “to swoop down on” began as a falconry term;^[6] Rey dates it to 1195,^[6] while Bloch and Wartburg find it in falconry in 1375 and in general use only from the 16th century.^[7] The past participle gave the dishes fondue (1735, fondue de fromage) and the cinema's fondu (1908) and fondu enchaîné (1922).^[4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – First recorded, in the Vie de saint Alexis, as “to collapse”.^[4]
• c. 1121 – Used transitively for shedding tears in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[4]
• 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it for making something by casting.^[4][6]
• c. 1190 – Marie de France uses it for melting metals.^[4]
• c. 1223 – Fondre en larmes appears in Gautier de Coinci.^[4][6]
• Late 14th century – Froissart uses it for growing thin.^[4]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for dissolving in a liquid.^[4]
• 1708 – Fontenelle uses it as a term of metallurgy.^[4]
• 1735 – Fondue de fromage is recorded in cookery.^[4]
• 1922 – Fondu enchaîné appears in film vocabulary.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To melt a solid by heating: fondre du beurre dans une poêle.^[8][4][1]
2. (transitive) To make an object by casting molten metal: fondre une statue en bronze.^[8][2]
3. (transitive) To dissolve in a liquid, or to blend several things into one whole.^[4][8]
4. (intransitive) To melt, to become liquid: la neige fond au printemps.^[8][1]
5. (intransitive) To dwindle fast, to waste away; of a person, to lose a lot of weight.^[4][1]
6. Fondre en larmes: to burst into tears.^[4][1]
7. Fondre sur: to swoop down on, to fall upon violently.^[4][6]
8. (reflexive) Se fondre dans: to blend into, to merge with.^[1][4]

Word family

• fonderie
• fondu
• fondue
• fondeur
• fondoir
• fonte
• refondre
• fondant
• morfondre

Related words

• confondre
• fusion
• fusible
• foison
• Latin fundō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x 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. 3, 863b
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert