insulaire

Forms

insulaire (plural insulaires)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin īnsulāris (“of an island”), a learned borrowing first recorded in 1516.^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is derived from Latin īnsula (“island”), the source of île.^[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1516, in the Mirouer hist. de France, as an adjective;^[2][3] Rey gives its first sense as “living on an island”.^[2][3] Littré quotes an earlier insulair in a 14th-century Anglo-Norman chronicle.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Used of people, the adjective meant “living on an island”, and it became a noun, un insulaire “an islander”, by 1559.^[3][7] Amyot used it in 1572 for what belongs to an island, as in flore insulaire or faune insulaire.^[3][8] From the later 19th century it also qualified what is typical of island life, in contrast to continental (Michelet, before 1874).^[3][8] In France les insulaires has often meant the British.^[3]

In medicine it came to correspond to the figurative “island, islet” of anatomy, the image behind insuline.^[3][9] From it French formed insularité (1840), perhaps prompted by English insularity, Hugo's insularisme and insulariser “to isolate as on an island” (1901).^[3]

Timeline

• 1516 – First record, in the Mirouer hist. de France.^[2][3]
• 1559 – First used as a noun, “islander”.^[3][7]
• 1572 – Amyot uses it for what belongs to an island.^[3][8]
• 1840 – Insularité is formed from it.^[3]
• before 1874 – Michelet uses it for what is proper to island life.^[8]
• 1901 – Insulariser is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Living on an island, or coming from one.^[7][2][10]
2. Belonging or relating to an island or to islands, as opposed to continental.^[7][10][3]
3. (geography) Arc insulaire: an island arc.^[7]
4. (figurative) Insular, inward-looking.^[1]

Noun

1. An islander.^[7][2][10]

Word family

• insularité

Related words

• île
• îlien
• insuline
• Latin īnsula

Usage notes

In Littré's time les insulaires was also the old name of a kind of contredanse.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le 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. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)