montage

Forms

montage m (plural montages)^[1] An earlier montaige of the early 13th century, a toll levied on boats going up the Yonne, is an isolated use.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French monter + -age.^[4][5][1][6] The verb is from Vulgar Latin *montō, from Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Latin–French dictionary Trium linguarum dictionarium of 1604 glosses Latin ascensio as le montage, “the action of going up”, an isolated use.^[4][5] Rey dates this first sense to 1603.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Rey calls it the last of the action nouns made from monter.^[7] Its first sense, the action of rising, died out, apart from the rising of cream in butter-making (1868, Littré); the sense “action of carrying something up” is recorded from 1680 in Richelet.^[4][7]

The main sense today, the assembling of the parts of a mechanism so that it works, appears in the Encyclopédie in 1765, in spinning mills.^[4][8][7] It spread to printing and, in 1914, to the cinema, for the cutting and assembling of a film, and later to radio and television.^[4][7][2] The familiar montage de tête, getting carried away about something, is found in Edmond de Goncourt in 1882.^[4]

English took the word in 1929, first as a term of film-making, for a whole made of fragments of pictures, text or music.^[9]

Timeline

• 1604 – Le montage glosses Latin ascensio in the Trium linguarum dictionarium.^[4]
• 1680 – Richelet records it for the action of carrying something up.^[4]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses it for assembling the parts of a mechanism.^[4][8]
• 1868 – Littré records montage de la crème.^[4]
• 1882 – Edmond de Goncourt uses montage de tête.^[4]
• 1914 – Coustet's treatise on cinematography uses it for film editing.^[4]
• 1929 – English borrows it as a cinema term.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) The action of carrying something higher, of raising it: le montage des briques.^[8][4]
2. The assembly of the parts of a mechanism, device or object so that it can work: le montage d'une machine, une chaîne de montage.^[8][4][1]
3. (electricity) The way circuits and components are connected: montage en série, montage en parallèle.^[8]
4. (printing) The putting together of the composition and plates to make up a page.^[8]
5. (cinema, television) The editing of a film or recording, the cutting and assembling of its shots and sound.^[4][7][1]
6. A montage, a composition made by assembling pictures, texts or other elements.^[8][9]
7. (mining) A small temporary rising gallery dug along the slope of a seam.^[4]

Word family

• photomontage

Related words

• monteur
• monture
• monter
• remontage
• démontage
• Latin mōns

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com