Etymologically
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sage

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Pronunciation

Forms

sage (plural sages)[1] Old French savie (about 1050), saive (about 1100); sage from about 1100.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sage, inherited from Vulgar Latin *sapius or *sabius, an alteration of Latin sapidus (“tasty; wise, virtuous”).[3][5][6][7] The Latin adjective is derived from sapiō (“to taste; to be wise”), the source of savoir, and also gave the old adjective sade.[3][5] Petronius has a compound nesapius (“fool”), which supports the reconstructed form.[3][8] Bloch and Wartburg explain the change of suffix by the close link with *sabere (“to know”); the Grand Robert and Petit Robert add the influence of sapiēns (“wise”).[5][6][9] Littré notes that the other Romance forms rule out a derivation from the nominative of that participle.[8] Wiktionary instead names Latin sagāx (“keen-scented, shrewd”) as the ultimate source.[1]

Cognate with Old Occitan savi, Catalan savi, Spanish sabio and Portuguese sábio; Italian saggio was borrowed from Old French.[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) has savie, “learned, knowledgeable”.[2][3] In the Chanson de Roland sage means judicious, sensible: Rolanz est proz e Oliviers est sage.[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “learned”, is now obsolete; the other senses grew out of it.[3] In Old French the word described a prudent, judicious person, often as a plural noun opposed to fools (li fol et li sage), and a man expert in his art, a sense kept in sage-femme (1212).[3][5][8] About 1170 Chrétien de Troyes uses it of a modest, well-behaved girl.[2]

Montaigne (about 1590) uses it for someone moderate and master of his passions;[2] un sage named the wise men of antiquity from about 1165.[2] The sense “well-behaved”, said of a child, is recorded by Pomey in 1671 and of an animal by the Académie in 1694;[2][4] sage comme une image is in Furetière (1690).[2][4] Said of things, it means measured or restrained, as a tableau sage (1765).[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1050 – Savie “learned” in the Vie de saint Alexis.[2]
  • c. 1100 – Sage and saive in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
  • c. 1165 – The wise men of antiquity, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[2]
  • c. 1170 – Of a modest young woman, in Chrétien de Troyes.[2]
  • 1212 – The compound sage-femme.[5]
  • c. 1590 – Montaigne: moderate, master of one's passions.[2]
  • 1671 – Of a well-behaved child.[2]
  • 1690 – Sage comme une image.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Wise, prudent and judicious: une sage décision.[9][1]
  2. (literary) Having a superior art of living, (archaic) learned.[9]
  3. Of a child, good, well-behaved: sage comme une image.[1][9]
  4. (dated) Of a woman, chaste, modest.[1][2]
  5. Measured, without excess; restrained in style.[2][9]

Noun

  1. A wise person, a sage: les sept sages de la Grèce.[1][2]

Word family

  • assagir
  • sage-femme
  • sagesse

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 202b
  8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter