mécanique

Forms

mécanique (plural mécaniques)^[1] Middle French mecanique and, in the 16th century, mechanique.^[2][3]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin mēchanicus (“of machines”), itself borrowed from Ancient Greek μηχανικός (mēkhanikós), from μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “machine, contrivance”), the source of machine.^{[2][4][5][1][6]} The feminine noun was borrowed again in the Renaissance (1559) from Late Latin mēchanica, after the Greek scientific term μηχανική (mēkhanikḗ), with τέχνη (tékhnē, “art”) understood: “the art of building machines”.^[2][4][5][7]

Littré compares Old Occitan mechanic, Spanish mecánico and Italian meccanico.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brunetto Latini's Trésor (about 1268) speaks of a mestier mecanique, a servile trade that uses tools and the work of the hand.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French the word described a class of workers: arts mécaniques (1374, Oresme) were opposed to the liberal arts, and the masculine noun mécanique meant a manual artisan from the 13th century; the adjective was used of anyone who worked with their hands (1382), sometimes with the sense “servile, base”.^[2][4]

With the Renaissance borrowing, la mécanique became (1559, Amyot) the part of mathematics dealing with the laws of motion and the action of machines, and the adjective came to mean “relating to the laws of motion” (1680).^[2][4] The 18th century named the branches of the science: mécanique rationnelle and mécanique céleste (1749), Lagrange's Mécanique analytique (1788).^[2][4]

From 1690 une mécanique was the system of parts that makes up a machine, and, after the view of the body as a machine, the working of natural processes in a living body; figuratively it named the workings of an administration (1727).^[2][4] Under the growth of industry the noun was applied to any machine (1791), and the adjective to things moved by an artificial mechanism rather than by a chemical or biological process (1786).^[2][4][5] The figurative adjective “automatic, done without thought” appears in Rousseau's Émile (1762).^[2][4] Slang took up the noun in rouler les mécaniques “to swagger with one's shoulders”, later “to show off” (about 1940).^[4][8]

Timeline

• c. 1268 – Brunetto Latini writes of a mestier mecanique.^[2]
• 13th century – The masculine noun means a manual worker.^[2][4]
• c. 1374 – Oresme has les ars mecaniques.^[2]
• 1559 – Amyot uses la mécanique for the science of motion and machines.^[2][5]
• 1680 – Richelet records the adjective “relating to the laws of motion”.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the noun for the structure of a machine.^[2]
• 1749 – Buffon uses mécanique céleste and mécanique rationnelle.^[2]
• 1762 – Rousseau uses the adjective for something done without thought.^[2]
• 1786 – Used of objects driven by a mechanism.^[2]
• 1791 – The noun names any kind of machine.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (dated) Arts mécaniques: the manual crafts, as opposed to the liberal arts.^[8][2]
2. mechanical: made or done by a machine, driven by a mechanism: escalier mécanique (escalator).^[8][9]
3. Worked by a mechanism rather than by electricity: une montre mécanique.^[8][9]
4. Done without thought, like a machine; machinal: Il hocha la tête d'un geste mécanique.^[8][1]
5. Relating to motion and to mechanics, or concerning a machine or engine: des ennuis mécaniques.^[8][9]

Noun

1. (feminine) mechanics, the science of motion and the equilibrium of bodies: mécanique céleste, mécanique quantique.^[8][9][1]
2. The science of building and running machines.^[8][9]
3. A set of parts producing or transmitting motion; a mechanism;^[8][9] (familiar) a machine seen as working well: Ce moteur est une belle mécanique.^[8][9]
4. (familiar) Rouler les mécaniques: to swagger with one's shoulders; figuratively, to show off.^[8][4]

Word family

• mécaniquement
• mécanicien
• mécaniser
• mécanisme

Related words

• machinal
• machine
• Latin mēchanicus
• English mechanic

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 t u 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 567a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)