liaison

Forms

liaison f (plural liaisons)^[1] Old French loison (1260), Middle French lioison (1393); liaison from the 14th or 16th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French lier + -aison, after Latin ligātiō (“a binding”).^[2][3][5] Littré and the GLLF derive it from the Latin word itself,^[6][4] and Bloch and Wartburg think it may go back to it.^[7] The Latin noun is from ligō (“to bind”).^[4][6] Rey thinks the French word inherited much of the range of the Latin one, which was a medical term for a ligature, a rhetorical term in Late Latin, “a moral bond, marriage” in Christian Latin and “a league, a pact” in Medieval Latin.^[8][2]

Compare Old Occitan liazon (second half of the 12th century), which meant “finery, clothing”.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is loison in the album of the architect Villard de Honnecourt (1260), for the bonding of the parts of a course of masonry in a pillar.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The Grand Robert gives an earlier record of 1190 in the sense “manner of dressing”.^[3] The cookery sense, the thickening of a sauce with egg yolk, is in the Ménagier de Paris (1393).^[2][6] The 16th and 17th centuries brought the abstract senses: what links the parts of a speech (1538), a logical or psychological connection (Pascal, 1656) and the grammatical link, as in mot de liaison (1649).^[8][2] Montaigne uses it for friendship (1588).^[2] From about 1681 it meant a personal attachment, often in the plural and with a bad sense, as in Laclos's Les Liaisons dangereuses (1781).^[2][8] Liaison amoureuse is recorded in 1694, and une liaison alone for a love affair in 1768.^[8][9]

Later senses belong to music (the slur or tie, 1765), phonetics (the sounding of a final consonant before a vowel, 1867), military signals (1902), transport and telecommunications, and chemistry.^[2][9][8] English took the word in the 1640s as a cookery term; its senses “intimate relationship” (1806) and “cooperation between units” (1816) followed.^[10]

Timeline

• 1260 – Villard de Honnecourt uses loison in masonry.^[2]
• 1393 – The Ménagier de Paris uses lioison for the thickening of a sauce.^[2][6]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne records it in masonry and for the linking of words.^[2]
• 1588 – Montaigne uses it for friendship.^[2]
• 1649 – Ménage writes mot de liaison.^[2]
• 1656 – Pascal uses it for a connection between two things.^[2]
• 1694 – Liaison amoureuse is recorded.^[8]
• 1765 – It is used in music.^[2][9]
• 1768 – Une liaison alone means a love affair.^[8][9]
• 1781 – Mme de Genlis uses it for the person one is attached to.^[2]
• 1867 – It is used of linking a final consonant to the next word.^[9]
• 1902 – It names communication between military units.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masonry) The bond of stones or bricks laid so that each one rests on the joint of the two below;^[9] maçonnerie en liaison.^[9]
2. (cooking) The thickening of a sauce with egg yolk, cream or the like.^[9][2]
3. What links the parts of a text or an argument logically;^[9][11] mot de liaison, a conjunction or preposition.^[9][11]
4. A logical or psychological connection between things.^[9][11]
5. (music) A curved line joining notes, a slur or a tie.^[9]
6. (phonetics) The pronunciation of a word's final consonant, silent elsewhere, before the vowel of the next word: les amis with the /z/ sounded.^[9][1]
7. (chemistry, physics) A chemical bond between atoms, or a force holding the parts of a system together.^[9][1]
8. (dated) A relationship of friendship or business between people.^[9][1]
9. A love affair: avoir une liaison.^[9][1]
10. Communication between military units or services;^[9][12] agent de liaison, officier de liaison.^[9][12]
11. A regular transport or telecommunications link between two places.^[9][12]

Word family

• liaisonner

Related words

• lier
• relier
• Latin ligātiō
• English liaison

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 320a
6. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)