sirène

Pronunciation

• IPA: /si.ʁɛn/^[1]

Forms

sirène f (plural sirènes)^[1] Old French sereine (late 11th century), serena (1121–1134), seraine (13th century), serayne (late 16th), syrene (1377), serene (about 1550); settled only in the 18th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin sīrēna, a remaking of classical Latin Sīrēn,^{[2][3][5][4][1][6]} from Ancient Greek Σειρήν (Seirḗn), of obscure origin.^[3] The popular Old French form “sereine”, perhaps crossed with the adjective serein, was later reshaped after the Latin.^[5][3][4] It is a doublet of serin.^[1][5] Littré mentions a Phoenician word for “song”.^[7]

The zoological sense comes from the New Latin genus name “Siren” given by Linnaeus.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's glosses (late 11th century) have sereine, and Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134) describes the fabulous creature of Greek myth.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In the Odyssey the Sirens were sea goddesses with the bodies of birds and the heads of women, who lured sailors to their death with their song; medieval and northern legend gave them a fish's tail, and this marine image has largely replaced the Greek one: Brunetto Latini already describes them as women down to the thighs and fish below.^[3][7][2] Villon praises a queen qui chantoit à voix de seraine.^[2][7] Figuratively a sirène is a dangerously seductive woman (1604), and écouter le chant des sirènes is to let oneself be tempted.^[2][3][9]

In 1819 Cagniard de La Tour gave the name to an acoustic device for measuring the pitch of sounds, and also from 1888 (Maupassant) it named the powerful hooter of ships and later the alarm siren.^[2][10][3] In zoology it named a sea mammal (1671) and an American eel-like amphibian (1805).^[2][4]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Sereine (Rashi).^[2][4]
• 1121–1134 – The creature of Greek myth (Philippe de Thaon).^[2]
• 1377 – Syrene (Oresme).^[2][3]
• 1604 – A seductive woman (Montchrestien).^[2][3]
• 1727 – Voix de sirène.^[3]
• 1819 – An acoustic device (Cagniard de La Tour).^[2][10]
• 1888 – A ship's hooter (Maupassant).^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mythology) A siren or mermaid, a creature half woman and half bird or fish, luring sailors with her song.^[9][1]
2. (figurative) A dangerously seductive woman^[9][1]; le chant des sirènes, a tempting call.^[9][1]
3. An alarm or signal hooter, a siren: sirène d'alarme.^[11][1]
4. (zoology) A siren, an eel-like American salamander.^[11][2]

Related words

• serin
• English siren

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 655a
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)