sève

Forms

sève f (plural sèves)^[1] Old French seve.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seve, inherited from Latin sapa (“new wine boiled down”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin word is recorded only for must boiled down to a half (Varro) or a third (Pliny), but it must first have meant “juice, sap”, the only sense that passed into the Romance languages.^[2][3][4] Rey thinks it may be related to Latin sapor (“taste, flavour”), used for “juice” under the Empire, and compares Old High German saf, Old Norse safi and Old English sæp.^[3]

Cognate with Italian sapa and Old Occitan saba.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the early 13th century, in the Old French glosses of the Machsor Vitry, for the nourishing juice of plants;^[2][6] in the same half-century a fabliau speaks of a pomme cuite sanz seve, a baked apple with no juice.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names the nourishing liquid that rises from the roots and circulates in plants.^[3] A tree was said to be en sa sève in 1549, then en sève (1636), dans sa sève (1690) and now en pleine sève.^[3] By analogy it was used for apple juice (about 1260–1270) and meat juice (after 1370), and in the mid-13th century, figuratively, for the hidden meaning of a text.^[3][2]

In 1538 Estienne records the sense, still used, of the quality that gives a wine its aroma and body.^[2][3] Olivier de Serres (1600) has the southern form sabe with the old Latin sense of a boiled sweet wine used as a condiment.^[3] Figuratively sève meant vigour in Christine de Pizan (1413), the vital principle in Bossuet (1697), and inspiration in works of the mind (1835).^[2][3]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – First record, in the glosses of the Machsor Vitry.^[2]
• Mid-13th century – Huon de Cambrai uses it for the symbolic sense of a letter.^[2]
• c. 1260–1270 – Used for apple juice.^[3]
• 1413 – Christine de Pizan uses it for youthful vigour.^[2][3]
• 1538 – Estienne records the sense “quality of a wine”.^[2][6]
• 1549 – En sa sève is said of a tree in spring.^[3]
• 1697 – Bossuet uses it for the vital principle.^[2][3]
• 1876 – Larousse records sève brute and sève élaborée.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) sap, the liquid that carries nutrients through vascular plants: sève brute rising from the roots, sève élaborée carrying the products of photosynthesis.^[7][6][1]
2. The distinctive quality of a wine, from its taste, aroma and bouquet.^[6][2]
3. (figurative, literary) vigour, vital energy.^[8][7][1]

Related words

• Latin sapa

Usage notes

En pleine sève is said of a tree at the height of the spring rise of sap.^[3][7] Rey lists the rare adjective séveux “of sap” from the 16th century.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, 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. 11, 191a
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)