nombril

Forms

nombril m (plural nombrils)^[1] Old French nomblil (1155) and nombril (about 1165), beside the regular umblil (1178) and lonbril in manuscripts of Chrétien de Troyes.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman spellings include numbril, nunblil and noumbryl.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French nomblil, inherited from Vulgar Latin *umbilīculus, a diminutive of Latin umbilīcus (“navel, centre”).^[2][6][3][7] The Vulgar Latin form gave Old French umblil regularly; the definite article then fused with it as an unrecorded *lonblil, which became lonbril by dissimilation, and the ⟨n⟩ of the indefinite article un produced the recorded form, whose first /l/ was then dissimilated, giving the modern word.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead explains the initial /n/ by rebracketing after a possessive: mun onbril (“my navel”) was heard as ⟨mun nonbril⟩.^[1] Bloch and Wartburg call the changes obscure and think the word, which suffers such accidents in many languages, was partly shaped by children's speech.^[8] Littré had already doubted the explanation by the article.^[9]

Cognate with Italian ombelico and bellico, Spanish ombligo, Portuguese umbigo, Catalan llombrígol and Old Occitan umbrilh.^[8][9][1] The learned ombilic is a doublet, taken from the same Latin word.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace's Brut has nomblil in 1155 for the human navel.^[2][3] Littré quotes Marie de France's Purgatoire: E teus i a desk'as numbriz “and some there are [sunk] up to the navels”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the word kept its anatomical sense;^[2][9] Montaigne wrote of women entr'ouvertes jusqu'au nombril, with very low necklines (1580).^[2][9] Botanists borrowed it by likeness of shape, first for the part of a fruit that holds the pips (1690), then for the hollow at the end opposite the stalk (1721), also called œil.^[2][3] In heraldry it named a point of the shield (1581).^[2]

The figurative sense “centre of something” appears in the 19th century (Hugo's le nombril de la mer, 1842), and with it the scornful idea of a self-appointed centre of the world, as in s'admirer le nombril (Lautréamont, 1869).^[2][3] From this sense came nombrilisme “self-absorption”, recorded in 1968.^[3]

Timeline

• 1155 – Nomblil appears in Wace's Brut.^[2][3]
• c. 1165 – The form nombril is used by Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[2]
• 1178 – The regular form umblil is found in a manuscript of the Brut.^[2][3]
• 1580 – Montaigne writes entr'ouvertes jusqu'au nombril of very low-cut dresses.^[2]
• 1581 – First used in heraldry.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the botanical sense.^[2][3]
• 1842 – Hugo uses it for the centre of something.^[2][3]
• 1869 – S'admirer le nombril appears in Lautréamont.^[2][3]
• 1968 – The derivative nombrilisme is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The navel, the round scar in the middle of the belly left by the cut umbilical cord.^[10][2]
2. Se regarder le nombril: to be wrapped up in oneself, self-centred.^[10]
3. (figurative) The centre of something;^[10][2] se prendre pour le nombril du monde: to think oneself the centre of the world.^[10][2]
4. (botany) The hollow at the end of a fruit opposite the stalk.^[2][9]
5. (botany) Nombril-de-Vénus: navelwort, a plant of old walls with round, navel-like leaves.^[10]

Word family

• nombrilisme
• nombriliste

Related words

• ombilic
• Latin umbilīcus

Usage notes

The final ⟨l⟩ may be silent or sounded;^[9][10][7] Littré gave only /nɔ̃.bri/, and the Petit Robert and Grand Robert print the /l/ as optional.^[9][10][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 18a
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert