sinueux

Forms

sinueux (feminine sinueuse, masculine plural sinueux, feminine plural sinueuses)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sinuōsus (“bent, curved, winding”), a word of the Imperial period derived from sinus (“curve, fold”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun, of unknown origin, is also the source of sein and sinus.^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1539 in Canappe's medical writing, of an ulcer that is narrow, deep and winding.^[2][3][6] Ambroise Paré, in the 16th century, wrote of ulceres sinueux et fistules.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The medical sense has died out.^[3] From 1552, in Charles Estienne's Latin–French dictionary, the word described anything that develops in curves and bends, such as a river, a road or a line.^[2][3] Figuratively it came to mean “tortuous, indirect”, of thought or conduct: the TLFi finds it in Baudelaire in 1860, Rey and the GLLF in Anatole France at the end of the 19th century.^[2][3][6]

The noun sinuosité was formed in 1549–1552 after the Latin adjective.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1539 – Canappe uses it of an ulcer.^[2]
• 1552 – Charles Estienne glosses it as “developing in curves”.^[2]
• 1860 – Baudelaire uses it of thought.^[2]
• Before 1892 – Taine uses the adverb sinueusement.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. winding, sinuous: having a series of irregular curves in different directions: une route sinueuse.^[5][2][1]
2. (figurative) tortuous, indirect: un raisonnement sinueux.^[5][6][1]
3. (surgery, dated) Of an ulcer: narrow and deep.^[7][2]

Word family

• sinueusement
• sinuosité

Related words

• sein
• sinus

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 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 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. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette