guérison

Forms

guérison f (plural guérisons)^[1] Old French guarisun (about 1100) and garison (about 1155).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French guérir + -ison, first as Old French guarisun.^[2][1][5] Its meaning developed in parallel with that of the verb.^[5][6] The verb, Old French guarir and garir, is from Frankish *warjan (“to defend, protect”), which is related to Old High German werian and German wehren (“to defend”).^[2][5] Wiktionary traces the Frankish verb to Proto-Germanic *warjaną (“to defend, guard”).^[1] The form guerir, with /e/, appears at the end of the 13th century, notably in the dialects of Champagne.^[2]

Littré compares Old Occitan guerizo and Italian guarigione.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) guarisun meant “defence, protection, salvation”:^[2][6] Par mon saveir vin-je à guarisun (“through my wisdom I came to safety”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

By 1155, in Wace's Brut, it meant a return to health, the sense that the verb had taken on as well.^[2][6][5] Old French also used garison for relief from pain, including the pains of love, as in the songs of the Châtelain de Coucy, and the Roman de Renart uses it for a store of provisions.^[7]

The figurative sense, the end of a moral ill, is recorded at the end of the 12th century in the Châtelain de Coucy.^[4] In modern French the word names both the recovery of a sick person and the disappearance of an illness or the healing of a wound.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Guarisun “defence, protection” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][6]
• 1155 – Wace uses guarisun for a return to health.^[2]
• Late 12th century – The Châtelain de Coucy uses it of relief from a moral ill.^[4]
• 1288 – The verb form guerir is recorded in Champagne.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Recovery, the return of a sick person to health: être en voie de guérison, to be on the way to recovery.^[8][2]
2. The healing of an illness or a wound.^[2][7]
3. (figurative) The end of a moral ill, such as grief or shyness.^[8][4]

Related words

• guérir
• guérissable
• guérisseur
• Frankish *warjan

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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert