résonance

Forms

résonance f (plural résonances)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from French résonner + -ance,^[2][1][3][4] keeping a single ⟨n⟩ after the Latin.^[5] The verb résonner is borrowed from Latin resonō (“to resound, echo”).^[5][3] resonantia is found in Latin only in Vitruvius, meaning “echo”;^[2] the GLLF allows a borrowing of it, but it and Rey prefer a French derivation.^[6][5]

English resonance is from the Old French word and directly from the Latin.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Oresme uses it about 1365 in his treatise on money for the prolongation of a sound.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert date the Oresme record to 1372.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word named the property of some objects and places of making a sound last longer or louder.^[5] From the 18th century it gained scientific senses: in 1746 Condillac used it for the property of a body of vibrating when suitably excited,^[2][5] and the Encyclopédie (1765) defined its uses in phonetics and in the physics of oscillation.^[5][6] In medicine it named, from 1855, the sound heard when the larynx, neck or chest is made to resonate.^[5][6]

The phrase caisse de résonance dates from 1875, after plain résonance in this sense in 1803,^[5][6] and a figurative sense, what stirs the mind or heart, from 1891.^[5][6] After Helmholtz's work of 1862 physicists spoke of mechanical and acoustic resonance,^[5][4] and then of electrical resonance at the end of the 19th century.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1365 – Oresme uses it for the prolongation of a sound.^[2]
• mid-15th century – English resonance appears.^[7]
• 1746 – Condillac uses it for a body's property of vibrating.^[2][5]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie defines several scientific senses.^[5][6]
• 1855 – Nysten records the medical sense.^[5][6]
• 1862 – Helmholtz defines the modern scientific concept.^[4][5]
• 1875 – Caisse de résonance is recorded.^[5][6]
• 1891 – The figurative sense “echo in the mind” appears.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The prolongation or amplification of sounds in certain places or bodies; the property of a place where this happens: la résonance d’une église.^[8][9][10]
2. Caisse de résonance: a closed box in which sounds resonate, as in a musical instrument.^[8][6]
3. (literary) An effect that echoes in the mind or heart; an echo.^[8][9][10]
4. (physics) resonance: the increase in the amplitude of an oscillating system excited near one of its natural frequencies.^[2][8]
5. (chemistry) The property of a molecule that cannot be represented by a single structural formula.^[10]

Related words

• résonner
• résonateur
• sonner
• Latin resonantia
• English resonance

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d 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 m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)