phallus

Forms

phallus m (invariable)^[1] Earlier gallicized forms were fallot (1570) and phalle (1605).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin phallus (“image of the male organ carried in the festivals of Bacchus”),^[2][3][4] which is from Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós).^[2][5][4] This form replaced the adapted forms fallot (1570) and phalle (1605), the latter being its doublet according to Wiktionary.^[3][1] The botanical sense was taken from the genus name Phallus, given by Hadrianus Junius to a mushroom of the sandy grounds of Holland.^[2]

Rey notes that the Greek word, of popular origin, rarely meant the erect penis itself and nearly always its material image, notably in the rites of Dionysus; he connects it with a wide group of Indo-European words built on a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to swell”), to which he also traces baleine.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as fallot, meaning the male member, in G. Hervet's 1570 translation of Augustine's City of God, where it renders Latin fascinum.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 1605 phalle named the virile members in Le Loyer's history of ghosts.^[2] The form phallus first appears in botany, in Dalechamp's Phallus d'Holande (1615), a mushroom, and again in 1791 for the stinkhorn Phallus impudicus.^[2] The image of the erect member worshipped in antiquity as a symbol of fertility is phalle in the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1752) and phallus in the Encyclopédie (1765).^[2] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word was rare before the 19th century.^[4] The Goncourts used it in 1860, and psychoanalysis made it a term of its own in the 20th century (1946), where for Lacan it is the signifier of desire.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1570 – Fallot is used in G. Hervet's translation of Augustine.^[2]
• 1605 – Phalle appears in Le Loyer.^[2]
• 1615 – Phallus d'Holande, a mushroom, in Dalechamp.^[2]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records phalle for the image of the male member.^[2]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses phallus in this sense.^[2]
• 1791 – Valmont de Bomare uses it for the stinkhorn mushroom.^[2][7]
• 1823 – The adjective phallique is recorded.^[4]
• 1946 – First use in psychoanalysis.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An image of the erect male member, worshipped in many religions, especially in antiquity, as a symbol of fertility and generative power.^[2][8][6]
2. An erect penis.^[6][9][8]
3. (psychoanalysis) The penis as a symbolic function; for Lacan, the signifier of desire.^[2][6]
4. (botany) A mushroom shaped like an erect penis, such as the stinkhorn, phallus impudique.^[8][9]

Related words

• phalle

References

1. ^ a b c 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)