prolifère

Forms

prolifère (adjective)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from French proli- + -fère as a learned word: the first element is taken from Latin prōlēs (“offspring, lineage, family”) and the second goes back to ferō (“to bear”).^[3][4][1][5] Bloch and Wartburg describe it as built on the Latin noun after the model of adjectives such as frūgifer (“fruit-bearing”).^[6] Littré derives it directly from a Latin prolifer.^[7]

Rey adds that it was partly prompted by the older prolifique, and that Medieval Latin prōlificō may have served as a model.^[4] The same element also appears in prolétaire.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1766 in the botanical textbook of Rozier and Claret de La Tourette, of a plant part that gives rise to a supernumerary organ.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word was coined in botany for an organ that produces another organ it does not normally bear, or one like itself.^[4][7] In the 19th century it spread to entomology (antennes prolifères, 1842) and to pathology (kyste prolifère, 1869).^[3]

From 1883 it was used more generally in biology of what multiplies quickly, as a synonym of prolifique;^[3][4] Villiers de l'Isle-Adam applied it to humankind.^[3][4] Rey notes that these uses have aged, while the derived verb proliférer (1859) passed into everyday language.^[4]

Timeline

• 1766 – First recorded in botany, of a plant producing a supernumerary organ.^[3][5]
• 1842 – Antennes prolifères is recorded in entomology.^[3]
• 1859 – The derived verb proliférer appears.^[4][6]
• 1869 – Kyste prolifère appears in a handbook of pathological histology.^[3]
• 1883 – Villiers de l'Isle-Adam uses it in the sense “multiplying rapidly, prolific”.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (botany) Giving rise to a supernumerary organ, such as a leaf or flower; of a flower whose axis grows on through it into a leafy shoot (fleur prolifère).^[3][2][5]
2. (biology, dated) Multiplying rapidly; prolific: Ce champignon est très prolifère dans les caves humides.^[3][4]
3. (zoology) Of antennae with a short club whose basal joint is greatly widened (antennes prolifères).^[7][3]

Word family

• proliférer

Related words

• prolifique
• prolétaire
• Latin prōlēs

References

1. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
2. ^ a b 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 i j k l 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 d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette