somatique

Forms

somatique (plural somatiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek σωματικός (sōmatikós, “bodily”), from σῶμα (sôma, “body”).^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]}

Earliest recorded meaning

A first record of 1620, in Lampérière, is given after Dauzat, with an unclear biological sense.^[2][6][7] The word then fell out of use and was formed anew in 1855 in a medical journal, for what concerns the body.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

In medicine and psychology the adjective qualifies what belongs to the body as opposed to the mind: Littré records a doctrine somatique de la folie that put madness down to lesions of the nervous system, and symptômes somatiques are recorded in 1904.^[5][6][7] With the French translation of Weismann (1892) it came to mean “relating to the soma”, the body cells as opposed to the germ cells.^[2][6][4] It gave the adverb somatiquement (1926) and, in the mid-20th century, the verb somatiser, with psychological terms that passed into everyday language.^[6]

Timeline

• 1620 – Lampérière's use, cited by Dauzat.^[2][6]
• 1855 – Boileau de Castelnau uses it in medicine.^[2]
• 1871 – Littré records it.^[7][8]
• 1892 – The translation of Weismann's essay on heredity uses it in biology.^[2][4]
• 1904 – Larousse records symptômes somatiques.^[7][6]
• 1926 – Piéron uses the adverb somatiquement.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (medicine, psychology) Relating to the body, organic, as opposed to psychic.^[4][7][9]
2. (biology) Relating to the soma, the cells that do not take part in reproduction, as opposed to germinal: cellules somatiques.^[2][4][9]

Word family

• somatiquement
• somatiser
• psychosomatique

Related words

• soma
• Ancient Greek σωματικός (sōmatikós)

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale