ravager

Forms

ravager^[1] Old French revagier (about 1300).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French ravage + -er.^[2][1][4] The earliest form, revagier, may show a change of prefix.^[2][5] The sense “to levy a tax” (1400, Poitou) is from a different use of the noun, meaning “a kind of tax”, recorded in 1482 in the Orléanais.^[2]

The noun ravage (1355) is from ravir with the suffix -age,^[2][4] and the verb is from Vulgar Latin *rapire, from rapiō (“to seize, carry off”).^[4] Littré compares Walloon ravagi.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Around 1300 the Établissements de Saint Louis use revagier for uprooting the crops of a piece of land as a legal penalty;^[2] the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert describe it as pulling up vine plants.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

In 1400 a Poitou document uses the verb for levying a tax.^[2][6] The sense “to plunder, lay waste by violence” appears in 1506–1507 in Jean d'Auton's chronicle and is established by Amyot's Plutarch (1559): Cleomenes sets out to ravage Megalopolis.^[2][8][6] From 1611 the verb is used of natural disasters such as floods, and Cotgrave records the past participle as an adjective.^[2][8]

Figurative use, of harm done to a person's body or mind, starts with Boileau in 1660;^[2][8][9] a face ravagé by smallpox is in Balzac (1834).^[2] The participle ravagé (1685) came to mean “marked, worn by time” before 1850.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – Revagier “to uproot the crops of a field” appears in the Établissements de Saint Louis.^[2]
• 1355 – The noun ravage is recorded.^[2]
• 1400 – A Poitou document uses it for levying a tax.^[2]
• 1506–1507 – Jean d'Auton uses it for plundering ships.^[2][8]
• 1559 – Amyot uses ravager of laying waste a city.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it of floods.^[2]
• 1660 – Boileau uses it figuratively.^[2][9]
• 1834 – Balzac writes of a face ravaged by smallpox.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To devastate or lay waste to a place by violent action: les pillards ont ravagé la vallée.^[7][10][11]
2. Of natural forces, to destroy or badly damage: la tempête a ravagé les vignes.^[7][11]
3. (figurative) To cause deep physical or moral havoc in someone: un visage ravagé par le chagrin.^[7][11][9]

Word family

• ravageur

Related words

• ravage
• ravir
• Latin rapiō

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 r s 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 63b
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)