précipité

Forms

précipité (feminine précipitée, masculine plural précipités, feminine plural précipitées) adjective, précipité m (plural précipités) noun^[2][1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from French précipiter; the chemist's noun is the same participle used as a noun.^[3][4][5] Wiktionary also traces the noun to New Latin praecipitātum.^[1] The verb was borrowed in 1386 from Latin praecipitō (“to throw headlong”), from praeceps (“falling headfirst”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective is first recorded in 1531, in conseil précipité “a hasty decision”;^[5][2] the TLFi has it in Rabelais in 1534, and the GLLF in Robert Estienne in 1549, for a judgement made too hastily.^[7][8] The noun first named a mercury oxide in 1553, in S. Colin's book on the frauds of apothecaries.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective took over from the present participle précipitant the active sense “abrupt, hasty in deciding and acting”, said of things, and of people from 1579.^[5] Before the end of the 16th century it also meant “of rapid pace or rhythm” (1580) and “steep, sheer” (1594); the latter has gone out of use.^[5][8]

In chemistry, after the mercury oxide of 1553, the noun came to mean any deposit produced by precipitation (Furetière, 1690).^[3][5][4] Bloch and Wartburg date the chemical term to 1573.^[6] From it physiology formed précipitine (1903), an antibody that gives a precipitate with its antigen.^[5]

Timeline

• 1531 – Conseil précipité “hasty decision”.^[5][2]
• 1553 – The noun names a mercury oxide.^[3][5]
• 1579 – The adjective is used of a hasty person.^[5]
• 1580 – Used for a rapid pace or rhythm.^[5]
• 1594 – Used for “steep, sheer”, a sense later lost.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the noun for any chemical deposit.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very rapid in pace or rhythm: une respiration précipitée, des pas précipités.^[2][3]
2. Done in haste, too hurried, hasty: un départ précipité, une décision précipitée.^[2][3]
3. Of a person, too quick in deciding or acting.^[2][9]
4. (obsolete) Steep, sheer.^[8][9]

Noun

1. (chemistry) A precipitate, an insoluble deposit formed in a solution: précipité blanc.^[2][3][1]

Related words

• précipiter
• précipitation
• précipice
• précipitamment
• Latin praeceps

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette