poumon

Forms

poumon m (plural poumons)^[1] Old French pulmun, polmun, pomon and poumon (about 1160); Middle French also poulmon.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pulmun, inherited from Latin pulmō (“lung”), through its accusative case.^[2][5][6][7] Latin also used the word for a sea creature, probably the jellyfish.^[5] Whether it is related to Ancient Greek πλεύμων (pleúmōn) or borrowed from it is hard to say, since the name of the lung varies greatly among the Indo-European languages.^[5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pléwmō.^[1]

Cognate with Italian polmone, Spanish pulmón and Occitan polmon.^[6][8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has pulmun, the organ of breathing: a blow tranche le cuer, le feie et le pulmun “cuts through the heart, the liver and the lung”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the singular named the whole organ formed by both lungs, as in Molière's c'est du poumon que vous êtes malade; the modern plural took over this use.^[5][9] The singular remains in Mme de Sévigné's perdre son poumon “to wear oneself out talking or shouting” (1671), now gone, while the plural appears in user ses poumons (1690), cracher ses poumons and avoir de bons poumons (1694), and crier à pleins poumons (Balzac, 1844).^[5][2]

In the 20th century, parks and green spaces became the poumons of a city (Paul Morand on London, 1933), probably after English lung, used so from 1808.^[2][5] Medicine added poumon artificiel (1953) and poumon d'acier “iron lung” (1946).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Pulmun in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The form poumon in the Roman de Troie.^[2]
• 1671 – Mme de Sévigné writes perdre son poumon.^[2][5]
• 1694 – The Académie records cracher ses poumons and avoir de bons poumons.^[2]
• 1844 – Crier à pleins poumons in Balzac.^[2]
• 1933 – Paul Morand calls London's parks its poumons.^[2]
• 1946 – Poumon d'acier in Prévert.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lung, either of the two organs of respiration in the chest.^[9][2]
2. (dated) The lungs taken together as one organ.^[9]
3. (figurative) A green space that renews a city's air, or a vital source of activity for a region.^[2][5]
4. Poumon d'acier, poumon artificiel: an apparatus for artificial respiration, an iron lung.^[2]

Word family

• époumoner

Related words

• pulmonaire
• Latin pulmō

Usage notes

Crier à pleins poumons means to shout at the top of one's voice, and avoir de bons poumons to have a strong voice.^[2][4]

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 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. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 545b
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert