kyste

Forms

kyste m (plural kystes)^[1] Middle French kisti (about 1370) and kist (1478), later chyst (1611); the spelling kyste is fixed in 1721.^[2][3] Ambroise Paré wrote kyst about 1560.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis, “swollen pouch, bladder”).^[3][2][1][6] The word entered French through surgery: the earliest forms come from the French translation of Guy de Chauliac's “Chirurgie”.^[3][7] Rey notes that the Greek word survives in Modern Greek with both senses, “bladder” and “cyst”, and that it was formed with a suffix from an Indo-European verb meaning “to blow”.^[2]

The datings differ: the TLFi dates the first form to about 1370, the Grand Robert to before 1478, and Bloch and Wartburg only to the 16th century (Paré).^[3][7][8] The same Greek word gives the learned prefix cysto- and cystite.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1370 the French version of Guy de Chauliac's Chirurgie uses kisti for a closed, pouch-like growth in the body.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a term of pathology, for a sac without an opening that develops in a tissue.^[2] In the 16th century Paré speaks of a humour shut up “in a kyst and its own membrane”.^[5][4]

Biology later took it over for the more or less thick membrane that surrounds an organism or a part of one (sometimes only a few cells) and protects it.^[2] From it came kystique (1721), kysteux “containing cysts” (1845) and, through the adjective enkysté (1703), the verb enkyster and the noun enkystement (1823).^[2] Enkysté is also used figuratively, for something shut in as if in a cyst.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1370 – Kisti appears in the French Chirurgie of Guy de Chauliac.^[3]
• 1478 – The form kist is found in a later version of the same work.^[3][2]
• c. 1560 – Ambroise Paré writes kyst.^[4][8]
• 1611 – The spelling chyst is recorded.^[2]
• 1703 – The adjective enkysté is first recorded.^[2]
• 1721 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux has the modern spelling kyste and the derivative kistique.^[3][2][4]
• 1845 – Kysteux is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (pathology) A cyst: an abnormal cavity in an organ or tissue, enclosed by its own wall and holding a liquid, soft or, more rarely, solid substance.^[9][10][3]
2. (biology) A resistant form taken by some organisms (such as protozoa, algae and fungi) or by parts of plants, to survive bad conditions or to spread.^[9][10][11]

Word family

• enkysté
• kystique
• kysteux
• enkyster
• enkystement

Related words

• cystite
• Ancient Greek κύστις (kústis)

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1615b
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b 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)
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)