illustrateur

Forms

illustrateur m (plural illustrateurs, feminine illustratrice)^[1]

Etymology

In its first sense, “one who gives lustre”, it is borrowed from Late Latin illūstrātor (“one who enlightens, one who makes known”),^[2][3][4][5] from the supine of Latin illūstrō (“to light up, make famous”).^[6][3] The Christian Latin word was used by Jerome and could also mean “inspirer”, of God.^[2][5] In the 19th century it was linked again with illustrer “to adorn with pictures” and illustration, and the TLFi treats the modern sense as a new derivative of that verb.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the mid-13th century, in the Épître de saint Jérôme, meaning one who gives lustre or glory to something.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Middle French kept the sense “one who makes something illustrious”,^[7] and Cotgrave glossed it in 1611 as “an illustrator, a brightener, beautifier, dignifier”.^[8][9] The modern sense, an artist who illustrates books, appears in 1845 in Gautier, who still apologized for the neologism: L'illustrateur, qu'on nous permette ce néologisme, qui n'en est presque plus un, ne doit voir qu'avec les yeux d'un autre (“the illustrator, if this neologism, which hardly is one any more, may be allowed, must see only with another's eyes”).^[2][10] After 1850 it was also used of anyone who adorns or illustrates something with a work of art, such as a composer setting a poet's work.^[5][2] The feminine is illustratrice.^[1][6]

English illustrator is recorded from the 1590s as “one who enlightens” and as “one who draws pictures” by the 1680s.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – First recorded, in the Épître de saint Jérôme, as “one who gives lustre”.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nicole Gilles uses it of one who makes something illustrious.^[7]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it.^[8][9]
• 1845 – Gautier uses it of an artist illustrating a book.^[2][3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An artist who specializes in illustration: une illustratrice de livres pour enfants.^[2][10][3]
2. By extension, a person whose work serves to illustrate something.^[2][5]
3. (archaic) One who gives lustre or glory to something.^[9][4][7]

Related words

• illustrer
• illustration
• illustre
• Latin illūstrātor
• English illustrator

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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
8. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com