hyperbole

Forms

hyperbole f (plural hyperboles)^[1] Old French yperbole; the spelling hyperbole, remade after the Latin, dates from 1520.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hyperbolē,^[2][3][1] which is from Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ, “a throwing beyond, excess, exaggeration”),^[3][4] from ὑπερβάλλω (huperbállō, “to throw beyond, to exceed”), a compound of ὑπέρ (hupér, “above, beyond”) and βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[2][3][5] The Greek word was already a term of mathematics for one of the conic sections.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as yperbole in the 13th century, in the Roman de la Table ronde, as a term of rhetoric.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed rare until the 17th century.^[3][6][7] Its sense of a figure of speech that stresses an idea by exaggerating the terms is the opposite of litote.^[3][8] The mathematical sense, a curve that is one of the conic sections, appears in Descartes' Géométrie in 1637;^[2][8] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Larousse date it to 1646.^[6][4] The derivative hyperboliser “to use a hyperbolic style” (16th century) has gone out of use, and hyperbolisme (1829) is rare.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – Yperbole in the Roman de la Table ronde.^[2]
• 1520 – The spelling hyperbole, in Fabri's Rhétorique.^[2][3]
• 1541 – Hyperbolique is borrowed from Late Latin.^[3]
• 1637 – Descartes uses it for the curve.^[2][8]
• 1829 – Hyperbolisme is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) Hyperbole: a figure of speech that brings out an idea by exaggeration.^[2][8][9]
2. (mathematics) A hyperbola, an open plane curve whose points have a constant difference of distances to two fixed foci.^[8][9][5]

Word family

• hyperboliser
• hyperbolisme

Related words

• hyperbolique
• litote
• Ancient Greek ὑπερβολή (huperbolḗ)

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)