saigner

Forms

saigner^[1] Old French seiner (1080), seigner (about 1130), seinier, seinner (about 1155), segner (about 1200) and saignier (about 1210).^[2] A late 15th-century form sangner, remade after sang, did not last.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seiner, inherited from Latin sanguinō (“to bleed, be bloodstained”), from sanguis (“blood”).^[3][4][2][5]

Cognate with Italian sanguinare, Spanish sangrar, Portuguese sangrar, Old Occitan sangnar, Picard sainer and Walloon sainî.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, meaning “to lose blood”: Tant ad seinet [que] li oil li sunt trublet “he has bled so much that his eyes are dimmed”.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the verb first meant intransitively “to lose blood”.^[2] Saigner par le nez (late 13th century) became saigner du nez (1591), which was used figuratively for “to back down” (1538) and “to lack courage” (1588), senses now gone;^[3][2] saigner comme un bœuf “to bleed heavily” dates from 1690.^[3][2] From about 1225 it was said of a moral pain felt like an open wound, and le cœur me saigne is recorded from the late 14th century.^[3][2]

The transitive sense “to draw blood by opening a vein”, the old medical bleeding, is found in Chrétien de Troyes (1174–80).^[3] The Académie's saigner jusqu'au blanc (1798) became saigner à blanc, which from 1863 also means “to strip someone of all his resources”.^[3][2] The verb was also used for killing an animal by draining its blood (1680), for killing with a blade (1696), and in slang from 1867 for murder with a knife.^[3][2]

Its figurative use for getting large sums out of someone dates from 1690, and the reflexive from Molière's L'Avare (1669); se saigner aux quatre veines “to go without for someone” followed in the early 20th century.^[3][2] By analogy it means “to drain by cutting channels”, as in saigner un fossé (1671), and in the 20th century “to tap a tree”.^[3] Familiar ça va saigner “there will be violence” dates from the mid-20th century.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Seiner “to lose blood” in the Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• 1174–80 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for drawing blood.^[3]
• c. 1225 – Gautier de Coinci uses it of the heart's pain.^[3]
• late 13th century – First record of saigner par le nez.^[3][2]
• 1591 – Saigner du nez appears.^[3][2]
• 1669 – Molière uses the reflexive for spending one's money.^[3]
• 1671 – Saigner un fossé “to drain a ditch”.^[3]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense “to kill (an animal) by bleeding it”.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records saigner comme un bœuf and the sense “to extort money”.^[3]
• 1798 – The Académie records saigner jusqu'au blanc.^[3][2]
• 1867 – Slang use for murder with a knife.^[2]
• 1931 – First use for tapping a tree.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To bleed, lose blood;^[8][9][1] saigner du nez, to have a nosebleed.^[8][9][1]
2. (intransitive, literary) To feel keen pain, like an open wound: le cœur me saigne, my heart bleeds.^[8][9]
3. (intransitive, familiar) Ça va saigner: there will be violence, things will get rough.^[2][8]
4. (transitive) To bleed (a patient), drawing blood by opening a vein.^[8][3]
5. (transitive) To kill (an animal) by draining its blood, by cutting its throat: saigner un mouton.^[8][3]
6. (transitive, figurative) To drain (someone) of his resources;^[8][2] saigner à blanc, to bleed white.^[8][2]
7. (reflexive) Se saigner aux quatre veines: to give all one can, going without for someone.^[8][2]
8. (transitive) To tap (a rubber tree) by cutting its bark to collect the latex.^[8][3]
9. (transitive) To drain (a ditch, a river) by cutting channels.^[3]

Word family

• saignée
• saignement
• saigneur
• saigneux
• saignant

Related words

• sang

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 156a
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert 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