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lymphatique

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Etymology and origin of the French word lymphatique

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1546 Rabelais, Tiers Livre More words from the 16th century
Borrowed from
Latin lymphaticus
Ultimate origin
Latin lympha

Pronunciation

  • /lɛ̃.fa.tik/[1]

Forms

lymphatique (plural lymphatiques)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lymphaticus (“delirious, mad”),[2][3][4] from lympha, which named water and also a water and country deity believed to possess people's minds.[3][4][2] The GLLF derives the Latin adjective from lymphō (“to water, to madden”).[5]

For the anatomical sense (1671), Rey and the Petit Robert take the word from scientific Latin, which had it from Medieval Latin in the sense “relating to water”,[3][6][7] while the TLFi treats it as derived from lymphe under the influence of the older French word.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rabelais uses it in 1546, in the Tiers Livre, in fol lymphaticque “raving madman”, meaning “delirious, frenzied”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was still used by Malherbe, in frayeurs lymphatiques.[5][4] The anatomical sense “relating to lymph” appears in 1671 in Rohault's venes lymphatiques.[2][5] Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert date it to 1665.[4][6]

In 1818 medical writers spoke of constitutions lymphatiques, the temperament that humoral medicine had called phlegmatic, marked by slowness and a heavy, flabby body.[2][3][6] From 1834 (Balzac) it describes, in ordinary language, a listless, apathetic person.[3][2] The derivative lymphatisme followed in 1852.[3]

Timeline

  • 1546 – Rabelais uses lymphaticque “delirious”.[2][3]
  • 1665 – The date of the anatomical sense in Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert.[4][6]
  • 1671 – Rohault writes of venes lymphatiques.[2][5]
  • 1818 – Constitutions lymphatiques appears in a medical journal.[2][3]
  • 1834 – Balzac uses it of a listless person.[2][3]
  • 1835 – The Académie records the sense of temperament.[5]
  • 1852 – The derivative lymphatisme is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. (anatomy, physiology) Relating to lymph or its secretion: vaisseaux lymphatiques, ganglions lymphatiques.[2][6][8]
  2. Drainage lymphatique: a massage method meant to drain the lymph.[6]
  3. (dated, medicine) Of the lymphatic temperament of humoral medicine, marked by slowness and apathy.[6][8][9]
  4. Listless, sluggish, apathetic.[9][1][3]
  5. (obsolete) Delirious, frenzied.[5][2]

Noun

  1. (anatomy) In the plural, the lymphatic vessels.[6][9]

Word family

  • lymphatisme

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 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 c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Lymphatique.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/lymphatique. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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