herbacé

Forms

herbacé (feminine herbacée, masculine plural herbacés, feminine plural herbacées)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin herbāceus (“grass-coloured”),^[2][3][4][5] from herba (“grass”),^[2][6] the word that gave herbe.^[7]

The sources date the borrowing differently: the Grand Robert, the GLLF and the DHLF give 1542, the TLFi the 16th century, Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert 1566.^{[4][8][3][2][5][9]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Du Pinet's translation of Pliny's Natural History uses herbacee, with that ending in the masculine, meaning “of the nature of grass”.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word became a term of botany.^[2][3] Plantes herbacées is recorded by the Académie in 1762, according to the TLFi and the DHLF, while the GLLF dates the phrase from Littré in 1866; the masculine spelling herbacé is found in Bulliard in 1783.^[2][3][8] Littré defines herbaceous plants as those whose stems produce no wood and die after a few months, and also uses the word, as the opposite of ligneux, for any green, leaf-like part of a plant.^[6] The TLFi also records the older sense “proper to grass”, as in the grassy taste that Cabanis in 1808 found common to all young plants.^[2]

Timeline

• 1542 – Du Pinet uses herbacee.^[4][8][3]
• 1762 – The Académie records plantes herbacées.^[2][3]
• 1783 – Bulliard writes herbacé.^[2]
• 1808 – Cabanis writes of a grassy taste.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (botany) Having the nature of grass; of a plant or plant part, soft, green and not woody, as opposed to ligneux: une tige herbacée.^{[2][9][10][6]}
2. Proper to grass, in colour, smell or taste: une odeur herbacée.^[2]

Related words

• herbe
• herbeux
• herbier
• herbivore
• Latin herbāceus

References

1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)