morbidité

Forms

morbidité f (plural morbidités)^[1]

Etymology

The TLF-Étym treats it as a calque: it is from New Latin morbiditās (“diseasedness”), a noun of New Latin recorded since the Renaissance and listed in Gouldman's Latin–English dictionary of 1678.^[2] Classical Latin had the adjective morbidus (“sick”) but no such noun, and the first French records suggest that English morbidity may have been the intermediary.^[2] The older TLFi notice analyses it as from French morbide + -ité.^[3][1] The adjective morbide is borrowed from the Latin one, which is derived from morbus (“disease”).^[3]

The statistical sense is a calque of German Morbidität, first recorded in 1847, beside the term Morbilität proposed in 1835 by the German physician Fuchs, which French had already copied as morbilité by 1840.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first known record is from 1818, in a review of two English publications on prisons in England, speaking of the degree of morbidité marked on the prisoners' faces, from which their time in prison could be judged.^[2] The TLFi, the Grand Robert and the DHLF had dated it from Balzac (1849), in the sense “state characteristic of illness”.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

In medical statistics the word took the sense “number of people affected by a disease in a given population and period” in 1852, in a Swiss text on the climate of Geneva; for a time it was used side by side with morbilité.^[2] This is the sense of tables de morbidité.^[5][6]

From 1885, first in a translation from English, it was extended to decadence and unhealthiness of mind or society;^[2] the TLFi and the DHLF date the sense “unhealthy character of a literary or artistic work” to Henri Massis in 1923.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1818 – First known record, in a review of English works on prisons.^[2]
• 1847 – German Morbidität, the model of the statistical sense, is first recorded.^[2]
• 1849 – Balzac uses it, the first record known to the TLFi.^[3][5]
• 1852 – The statistical sense appears in a Swiss medical text.^[2]
• 1885 – It is used of moral or mental decadence.^[2]
• 1903 – The Larousse records the sense “causes that expose a person to disease”.^[7]
• 1923 – Massis applies it to the unhealthy character of a literary work.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (medicine) The sickly, morbid state or character; also the set of causes that can bring on a disease.^[6][4][3]
2. (demography) morbidity: the number of sick people in a given group over a given period: tables de morbidité.^[6] Morbidité prévalente counts all existing cases, morbidité incidente the new cases in a period.^[6][8]
3. An unhealthy, malsain character: la morbidité d'un roman.^[6][8][7]

Related words

• morbide
• morbilité
• Latin morbus
• English morbidity
• German Morbidität

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)