matériel

Forms

matériel m (plural matériels)^[1] Old and Middle French also had material (about 1300), closer to the Latin; its plural survives as matériaux.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin māteriālis (“made of matter; material”), a Late Latin and scholastic derivative of Latin māteria (“matter, stuff; timber”).^[5][3][2][6] Wiktionary instead treats the word as inherited through Old French materiel, and traces the Latin noun further to māter (“mother”).^[1]

Cognate with Italian materiale, Occitan material and Spanish material.^[7] In 1814 the French noun gave materiel, a later borrowing of the same word that had earlier given material.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1270, in Mathieu le Vilain's translation of Aristotle's Meteorologica, as a term of scholastic philosophy: cause materiel, the material cause, as opposed to the formal cause.^[5][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Medicine also spoke of a cause matérielle (1314, Henri de Mondeville), as opposed to a predisposing cause.^[5][3] In the early 14th century the adjective took the sense “made of matter”, first of ordinary fire as opposed to heavenly fire, then more generally in contrast with the spiritual (about 1360); from 1458 it could also mean “heavy, gross”.^[5][3] The everyday sense “expressed in or through matter, concrete” dates from 1677 (Bossuet); in the 19th century the word came to describe the outward aspects of things (1858) and the practical needs of life (1804), as in vie matérielle, shortened in familiar speech to la matérielle (1880), the means of subsistence.^[3][4]

As a noun, le matériel long meant in philosophy what is perceived by the senses (about 1300, material).^[3][5] It took its modern collective sense, the equipment needed for an activity, only in 1822, in a military context.^[3] Matériel roulant (rolling stock) is recorded in 1867, and in 1974 matériel was adopted in computing to translate English hardware.^[3] The clipped slang form matos appears in writing in 1972.^[3]

Timeline

• 1270 – Cause materiel in Mathieu le Vilain.^[5]
• c. 1300 – The noun form material.^[4][3]
• 1314 – A medical sense, in Henri de Mondeville.^[5]
• c. 1360 – Opposed to “spiritual”.^[3]
• 1458 – “Heavy, gross”, in Arnoul Gréban.^[5]
• 1677 – The current sense “concrete”, in Bossuet.^[4][3]
• 1814 – English borrows the noun as materiel.^[8]
• 1822 – The noun in its modern sense “equipment”, in a military context.^[3]
• 1880 – La matérielle, the means of subsistence.^[4][3]
• 1974 – Matériel for computer hardware.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (philosophy) Relating to matter as opposed to form: cause matérielle.^[9][7]
2. Made of matter, physical as opposed to spiritual: le monde matériel.^[9][5]
3. Concrete, actually possible or needed: je n'ai pas le temps matériel de finir.^[9]
4. Relating to the outward, practical side of things: une erreur matérielle, a clerical error.^[9][4]
5. Relating to money, goods and the needs of daily life: des dégâts matériels, des soucis matériels.^[9][3]
6. (pejorative) Too attached to physical comforts and material things.^[9]

Noun

1. Equipment, the set of objects and tools needed for an activity: le matériel de camping.^[9][1][3]
2. (computing) Hardware.^[1][3]
3. (railways) Matériel roulant: rolling stock.^[3]
4. (social sciences, psychoanalysis) The data or material submitted to analysis.^[3]

Word family

• matériellement
• matérialité
• matos

Related words

• matière
• matériau
• Latin māteria
• English materiel

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 484b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert