hallucination

Forms

hallucination f (plural hallucinations)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hallūcinātiō (“a mistake, hallucination”), a Latin word of the Imperial period, borrowed in 1660 as a medical term.^[2][3] The Latin noun was formed on the supine of hallūcinor (“to dream, wander in mind”), earlier ālūcinor, which in Late Latin also meant to be mistaken or to have hallucinations.^[3][4][5] Rey says the verb is first found in Cicero and derives it from Ancient Greek ἀλύω (alúō, “to wander, be beside oneself”),^[3] a link Wiktionary gives only as possible.^[1]

It belongs to the same learned group as halluciné, borrowed from the Latin past participle hallūcinātus in 1611.^[6][3][7] The verb halluciner was only formed in the 19th century.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1660 in a French translation of Jean Fernel's Pathology, as a medical term for the perception of things that are not there.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Grand Larousse dates the medical sense to Hauteroche in 1674.^[8][4] In 1831 Balzac used it figuratively for any flight of the imagination, which led to the everyday sense of an error of the senses or an illusion.^[2][3] The familiar avoir des hallucinations, said jokingly of someone who sees what others do not, is a 20th-century use.^[8][9]

From its stem French later formed hallucinatoire (1872) and the learned compounds hallucinose (1908) and hallucinogène (1934), the last said especially of drugs.^[3] English took hallucination straight from Latin in the 1640s.^[5]

Timeline

• 1660 – Hallucination appears in a French translation of Jean Fernel's Pathology.^[2][3]
• 1674 – Hauteroche uses it in the medical sense.^[8]
• 1831 – Balzac uses it figuratively of a flight of the imagination.^[2][3]
• 1835 – The Académie française records the word.^[2]
• 1872 – The derived adjective hallucinatoire appears.^[3]
• 1934 – Hallucinogène is formed on its stem.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) The perception of objects or sensations when no outside stimulus causes them, in some illnesses or under drugs: hallucinations visuelles, hallucinations auditives, hallucination collective.^[10][2][11]
2. An error of the senses, an illusion: Je croyais avoir vu mon frère au marché, ce devait être une hallucination.^[10][3]
3. (familiar) Avoir des hallucinations: to see something that others do not see, to be seeing things.^[8][9]
4. (literary, figurative) A flight of the imagination.^[2]

Word family

• hallucinatoire
• hallucinogène
• hallucinose

Related words

• halluciné
• halluciner
• hallucinant
• Latin hallūcinātiō
• English hallucination

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette