intrinsèque

Forms

intrinsèque (plural intrinsèques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin intrinsecus (“inner, interior”), an adjective of scholastic Latin (from about 1115, in philosophy),^[2][3][4] drawn from the classical adverb intrīnsecus (“inwardly, on the inside”).^[2][1] Rey explains the adverb as a compound of °intrim, from interim, and secus (“along”), akin to sequor (“to follow”);^[3] the Grand Robert and the GLLF take its first part to be intrā (“within”) instead.^[5][6] It was opposed to extrinsecus, the source of extrinsèque.^[3][4]

Cognate with Occitan intrinsec, Spanish intrínseco and Italian intrinseco.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1314 in Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie, as an anatomical term meaning “interior”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In anatomy it qualified what belongs to an organ itself, as in veines intrinsecques (about 1500), and later the muscles proper to an organ.^[3][7] In the 16th and 17th centuries it also meant “intimate”, of a friendship (Des Périers, 1544),^[2][3][7] and the noun l'intrinsèque (1528) was the innermost part of the heart, a use still found in Saint-Simon.^[2][3]

Calvin used it in 1561 as a term of philosophy, of what belongs to the essence of a thing;^[2][3] Furetière (1690) describes the philosopher who, unable to explain an effect of nature, calls it a vertu intrinsèque or qualité intrinsèque.^[2] From the early 18th century it was said of the value an object has apart from any convention, above all of coin (valeur intrinsèque, Académie 1718).^[2][3] English took it as intrinsic in the late 15th century, through Old French.^[8]

Timeline

• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville uses it for “interior” in surgery.^[2][3]
• c. 1500 – Veines intrinsecques in anatomy.^[3]
• 1528 – The noun l'intrinseque des cueurs “the innermost heart”.^[2][3]
• 1544 – Des Périers uses it for “intimate”.^[2][7]
• 1561 – Calvin uses it as a term of philosophy.^[2][7]
• 1690 – Furetière records vertu intrinsèque and qualité intrinsèque.^[2]
• 1718 – The Académie records la valeur intrinseque de la monnoye.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to a thing or person in itself, apart from outside factors, inherent, essential: qualité intrinsèque.^[9][10][2]
2. Valeur intrinsèque: the value a coin or object has from its own substance, not by convention.^[9][7]
3. (anatomy) Of muscles or nerve formations situated within an organ.^[10][9][7]
4. (biochemistry) Facteur intrinsèque: a glycoprotein of the gastric lining needed to absorb vitamin B12.^[9]

Word family

• intrinsèquement

Related words

• extrinsèque
• Latin intrinsecus
• English intrinsic

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b 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. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)