ontologie

Forms

ontologie f (plural ontologies)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin ontologia, a word unknown to classical Greek and Latin.^[2][3][4] The revised TLF notice calls the French word a calque of the New Latin term and finds it first in 1613, in Greek letters in Goclenius's Lexicon philosophicum and in Latin form in Lohardus's Theatrum.^[2] Rey dates Goclenius's Greek form to 1603,^[4] the TLFi and the Robert dictionaries cite Clauberg's Metaphysica of 1646,^[3][5][6] and Bloch and Wartburg wrongly credit the coinage to Christian Wolff.^[7][2]

The element ⟨ont-⟩ is the stem of Ancient Greek ὤν (ṓn, “being”), genitive ὄντος (óntos), the present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “to be”), and the second element is -logie.^[2][4][8][9] Rey notes that the root of the Greek verb is also found in Latin est (“is”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1692 in La Placette's Traité de l'orgueil for the part of philosophy that studies the most general properties of being; the same year Le Clerc used it in a letter to Locke (20 January 1692).^[2][3] The Bibliothèque universelle explained that Le Clerc called Ontologie what was commonly called metaphysics, since that science deals with being in general.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In philosophy the word names the part of metaphysics that deals with “being as being”, in Aristotle's phrase.^[4][6] The Journal des savants of 1696 describes a metaphysics divided into an ontology and a pneumatology, the latter treating God, the angels and the human mind.^[2][10]

From 1821 the physician Broussais used ontologie for the doctrine he attacked, which treated diseases, fevers in particular, as entities existing in themselves; he called it ontologie médicale.^[2][4] After the 19th century this medical sense survives only in historical writing.^[2]

The adjective ontologique (1765, in the Encyclopédie) was formed by a change of suffix, perhaps after Goclenius's ontologikê;^[4] Bloch and Wartburg date it to 1740.^[7] ontologiste (1824) and ontologisme (1868) followed.^[4] English has ontology from the 1660s, from the same New Latin word.^[11]

Timeline

• 1613 – New Latin ontologia appears in Goclenius and Lohardus.^[2]
• 1692 – First French records, in La Placette and in Le Clerc's letter to Locke.^[2][3][4]
• 1696 – The Journal des savants uses it for the first part of metaphysics.^[2][10]
• 1765 – The adjective ontologique appears in the Encyclopédie.^[4]
• 1821 – Broussais uses it for the doctrine of diseases as entities.^[2]
• 1824 – Ontologiste is recorded.^[4]
• 1868 – Ontologisme is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (philosophy) ontology, the part of metaphysics concerned with being as such, independently of its particular determinations.^[6][3][8]
2. (history of medicine) The doctrine that treated diseases as entities existing in themselves, opposed by Broussais.^[2][4][8]

Word family

• ontologique
• ontologiste
• ontologisme

Related words

• ontique
• New Latin ontologia
• English ontology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 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 c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 354b
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com