rythmique

Forms

rythmique (plural rythmiques)^[1] Older spellings: rithmique (c. 1355, 1520), richmique (late 15th century), rhythmique (18th–19th centuries).^[2][3]

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from Late Latin rhythmica (“science of rhythm”), from Ancient Greek ῥυθμική (rhuthmikḗ, “rhythmic language, poetry”), the feminine of the Greek adjective used as a noun.^[2][3] The adjective is borrowed from Late Latin rhythmicus (“rhythmic, measured”), which in classical Latin was also a noun “expert in rhythm”, from Ancient Greek ῥυθμικός (rhuthmikós), derived from ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “rhythm”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary instead derives it within French from rythme.^[1] English rhythmic (c. 1600) comes from the French word or straight from Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun rithmique appears about 1355 in Guillaume de Digulleville's Pèlerinage de l'âme, in music, as the science of rhythm.^[2][3] The adjective is first found in Jean Molinet's Art de rhétorique (1482–1492), spelt richmique, for poetry seen as a kind of music.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective was introduced by the 15th- and 16th-century theorists of rhetoric for the art of verse (rithmique, 1520), against prose.^[3][2] Drawn towards rythme, it widened to whatever concerns regular, proportioned movement, as Furetière recorded in 1690; after Latin versus rhythmici it also described Leonine verse, with rhyming endings (1588).^[3][2] In music Mersenne used it in 1636, and later came accent rythmique (1885) and the section rythmique of a jazz band (1951).^[2]

At the start of the 20th century Émile Jaques-Dalcroze's gymnastique rythmique (1906) gave the noun la rythmique for this method of education by movement (Gide, 1916).^[2] The noun in its older sense, rare before the 17th century, came to name the study of rhythm in ancient music and verse, then from 1765 also in prose and poetry generally.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1355 – The noun rithmique “science of rhythm” appears in Guillaume de Digulleville.^[2][3]
• 1482–1492 – Jean Molinet uses the adjective richmique.^[2]
• 1520 – The spelling rithmique is used of rhetoric in verse.^[2]
• 1588 – Tabourot calls Leonine verse vers rithmiques.^[2]
• 1636 – Mersenne writes rythmique in his Harmonie universelle.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the adjective.^[6][3]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses rhythmique for the science of rhythm in verse.^[2]
• 1906 – Gymnastique rythmique names Jaques-Dalcroze's method.^[2]
• 1951 – Section rythmique is used of a jazz orchestra.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Following a regular rhythm; rhythmic: des battements rythmiques;^[7][2] gymnastique rythmique, exercise in rhythmic, linked movements.^[7][2]
2. Relating to rhythm: accent rythmique;^[7][2] section rythmique, the rhythm section of a jazz band.^[7][2]
3. (phonetics) Groupe rythmique: a group of syllables ending in a stressed vowel, the unit of the French sentence.^[7][2]
4. Based on rhythm: versification rythmique, based on word stress rather than the number or length of syllables, also prose rythmique.^[7][2]

Noun

1. The study of rhythms in Greek and Latin verse, and of rhythm in literary prose or poetry.^[7][3]
2. A form of dance or rhythmic gymnastics used in education.^[7][2]

Word family

• rythmicien

Related words

• rythme
• rythmer
• Latin rhythmicus
• English rhythmic

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 t u v w x y 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 d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert