physicien

Forms

physicien m (plural physiciens, feminine physicienne)^[1] Old French fisicien, feminine fisicienne.^[2][3] The spelling physicien is found about 1220, in Gautier de Coinci.^[4]

Etymology

It is formed from French physique² + -ien, at first as Old French fisicien, when physique² meant “medicine”.^[2][5][6][7] Bloch and Wartburg see the modern noun as formed after Latin physicus, which also meant “physician” in the Middle Ages.^[5] That noun is from Latin physica (“natural science, medicine”), from Ancient Greek φυσική (phusikḗ, “science of nature”).^[5]

Littré compares Old Occitan phisician and Italian fisiciano.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace uses fisicien in the Roman de Rou (1170–1183) for a doctor of medicine.^[2] The GLLF and the DHLF date the word about 1155, also in Wace, in the same sense,^[4][3] while the Grand Robert dates a fisicien of 1155 as an adjective meaning “natural”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the history of physique.^[3] As “physician” it went out of use about 1594, but it had passed into English as physician by the 13th century.^[3][5] A feminine fisicienne “woman doctor” is found about 1223.^[3]

As an adjective it meant “natural” about 1380.^[3] As a noun it then named a person who studies the things of nature (1532 in the TLFi, 1538 in R. Estienne according to the GLLF).^[2][4] From 1680, in Richelet, it named a specialist in physique² as a science.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date the modern sense to the 18th century, in Condorcet.^[5] The feminine physicienne took the modern sense in 1834.^[3] In the colleges of Littré's time a physicien was also a pupil studying physics.^[6]

Timeline

• 1170–1183 – Wace uses fisicien for a doctor in the Roman de Rou.^[2]
• c. 1223 – The feminine fisicienne “woman doctor” appears.^[3]
• c. 1380 – Used as an adjective meaning “natural”.^[3]
• 1532 – Phisicien names a person who studies nature.^[2]
• 1594 – The sense “doctor” goes out of use.^[3]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense “specialist in physics”.^[2][4]
• 1834 – Physicienne is first found in the modern sense.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A physicist, a specialist in physique².^[9][10]
2. (dated) A scholar who studies and explains the phenomena of nature, a natural philosopher.^[2][9]
3. (obsolete) A physician, a doctor of medicine.^[2][4]

Related words

• physique²
• astrophysicien
• géophysicien
• Latin physicus
• English physician

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 406b
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)