Etymology and origin of the French word nasal
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1538 Canappe, Le Guidon en françois More words from the 16th century
- From
- Latin nasus
- Ultimate origin
- Latin nāsus
Etymology tree
Pronunciation
- /na.zal/[1]
Forms
nasal (feminine nasale, masculine plural nasaux or nasals, feminine plural nasales)[1]
Etymology
The adjective is a learned derivative from Latin nāsus (“nose”), formed with the suffix -al.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary and Littré give a Latin nāsālis as its source.[1][6] The TLFi dates it from 1538, while the Grand Robert, the GLLF and the Petit Robert find it in Guy de Chauliac's surgery in 1363, and Bloch and Wartburg give 1611.[2][4][7][8][5] The Latin noun is the source of the inherited nez.[3]
Earliest recorded meaning
The TLFi first records the adjective in 1538, in Jean Canappe's French translation of the Guidon, meaning “relating to the nose”.[2]
Semantic evolution
From anatomy, where it qualifies the parts of the nose (fosses nasales in Littré, 1868), the adjective passed into phonetics: Trévoux in 1721 applied it to sounds made with air resonating in the nasal cavities, spelt nazal.[2][3][7] The Académie used the feminine noun nasale for a nasal vowel in 1762, and Rey dates the noun meaning a nasal vowel or consonant to 1845.[2][3] Its derivatives belong to phonetics and music: nasalité (1760, nazalité), nasaliser (1868, replacing nasaler, 1781) and nasalisation (1868).[3][5]
Timeline
- 1538 – First recorded as an adjective, “relating to the nose”.[2][3]
- 1721 – Trévoux applies nazal to speech sounds.[2][3]
- 1760 – The derivative nazalité appears.[3][5]
- 1762 – The Académie uses the feminine noun nasale for a nasal vowel.[2][7]
- 1868 – Nasaliser and nasalisation appear.[3][5]
Meanings
Adjective
- Relating to or belonging to the nose: les fosses nasales, la cloison nasale.[8][6]
- (phonetics) Pronounced with the air resonating in the nasal cavity: voyelles nasales, consonnes nasales.[8][2]
- By extension, of a voice: nasal, nasillard.[8]
- (anthropology) Indice nasal: the ratio of the width of the nose to its height.[8][7]
Noun
Word family
- nasaliser
- nasalité
Related words
Usage notes
The Grand Robert has a separate headword nasal 1, a masculine noun for the nose-guard of a medieval helmet.[4] It is an older word, formed in Old French on nes “nose”: nasel is in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) and nasal in Wace's Brut (1155).[2][3][5] Bloch and Wartburg explain the a by the regular alternation between stressed e and unstressed a from Latin a, as in navet.[5] Godefroy also records the spellings nasaul, nesel and nazel.[9]
References
- ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Nasal.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/nasal. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.
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