pneumatique

Forms

pneumatique (plural pneumatiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pneumaticus (“relating to air”), a Latin word of the imperial period used especially of things worked by air or wind, as in pneumatica organa (“machine driven by air, pump”).^[2][3][4] The Latin adjective was taken from Ancient Greek πνευματικός (pneumatikós), also used of the air pump, which is derived from πνεῦμα (pneûma, “breath, wind, spirit”).^[2][3][5][1] Rey traces the Greek noun to the verb πνέω (pnéō, “to blow, to breathe”), probably part of an expressive, imitative Indo-European family, and compares Old Norse fnýsa (“to snort”) and Old English fnēosan (“to sneeze”).^[3]

The masculine noun for a tyre (1890) is a gallicization of the English pneumatic tyres, a word of the same origin; the noun for a letter sent by tube also follows English usage, where pneumatic despatch named the London system from 1863.^[2][3] Picoche lists it among the learned words of the family of this Greek verb that kept the cluster /pn/, beside the half-learned neume.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first, isolated record (1520, P. Verney) it describes the mind as “subtle”: vostre vigilant et pneumatique esperit “your watchful and subtle spirit”.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

From 1547, in Jean Martin's translation of Vitruvius (engins pneumatiques), it was a term of physics and engineering for devices that use the compressibility of air as a source of power.^[2][3][7] It then named the pump that empties a vessel of air, the machine pneumatique (1708, Fontenelle),^[2][3] anything that holds stored air (1869) and the hollow, air-filled bones of birds (1903).^[2][3] Its commonest modern use, “worked by compressed air”, appears in briquet pneumatique (1869) and marteau pneumatique (1927).^[2][3]

As a feminine noun it named the science of air and gases (1751, in the Encyclopédie) and, in philosophy, an old spiritualist psychology (1938).^[2][3][8] The masculine noun came at the end of the 19th century under English influence: first a tyre filled with compressed air (1890, bandage pneumatique in Michelin's patent of 1891), then a letter carried by the Paris network of air tubes (1913, Proust).^[2][3] Both senses have aged, replaced by the clipping pneu (1891).^[3][5] English in turn took pneumatique for the Paris tube post, recorded in 1924 in Hemingway.^[2]

Timeline

• 1520 – P. Verney uses the adjective of the mind, meaning “subtle”.^[2][7]
• 1547 – Jean Martin's Vitruvius has engins pneumatiques, machines worked by air.^[2][7]
• 1708 – Fontenelle writes machine pneumatique for the air pump.^[2]
• 1751 – The Encyclopédie uses the feminine noun for the science of air and gases.^[2][3]
• 1869 – Littré records briquet pneumatique and the botanical sense “holding air”.^[2]
• 1890 – The masculine noun means a pneumatic tyre.^[2][3]
• 1891 – Michelin's patent speaks of bandages pneumatiques; the clipping pneu appears the same year.^[2][3]
• 1903 – Used of the air-filled bones of birds.^[2][7]
• 1907 – Carte pneumatique is recorded.^[2]
• 1913 – Proust uses the noun for a letter sent by pneumatic tube.^[2][3]
• 1924 – English pneumatique names the Paris tube post.^[2]
• 1927 – Marteau pneumatique is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (physics) Relating to air and other gases;^[8][2] machine pneumatique, an air pump used to make a vacuum.^[8][2]
2. Filled or inflated with air: un matelas pneumatique, un canot pneumatique.^[2][8]
3. Worked by compressed air: un marteau pneumatique.^[8][2]
4. (historical) Tube pneumatique: a tube carrying a letter between post offices through underground pipes by compressed air.^[8]
5. (zoology) Of the bones of birds: hollow and filled with air.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (masculine, dated) A pneumatic tyre, now usually pneu.^[8][1][3]
2. (masculine, historical) A letter sent through the Paris pneumatic tubes: Elle lui répondit par pneumatique.^[8][2]
3. (feminine, obsolete) The science of the physical properties of air and gases.^[8][9]
4. (feminine, philosophy, obsolete) The science of spiritual things.^[8][2]

Word family

• pneu

Related words

• neume
• pneumonie
• apnée
• pneumatologie
• Ancient Greek πνεῦμα (pneûma)
• English pneumatic

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 v w x y z 27 28 29 30 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 o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette