songe

Forms

songe m (plural songes)^[1] Old French sunge (about 1155) and soinge (13th century); songe is a remodelled form from about 1175.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had sounge, soynge and suinge.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sunge, inherited from Latin somnium (“dream, also fantasy, extravagance”),^[5][2][6][7] a derivative of somnus (“sleep”).^[2][8] In Latin the plural also named the Dreams personified.^[5][2] The verb songer comes in the same way from somniō (“to dream”).^[9][2]

Cognate with Italian sogno, Old Occitan somne, Spanish sueño and Portuguese sonho.^[10][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as sunge in Wace's Brut (1155), meaning a dream.^[5][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the proper Latin sense, which stayed common until the 19th century; it was then replaced by rêve in ordinary use, except in phrases such as en songe (1553) and la clef des songes (1876), and as a term of mythology, where les Songes (late 17th century) are the sons of Sleep who bring true or false images.^[2][5]

From 1204 it also meant what only seems real, an illusion: c'est un songe (1651), and la vie est un songe (1626).^[2][5] Montaigne used it for an imagination of the waking mind (1580, 1588).^[5] Old French also used it for “thought” (about 1210) and, by confusion with soin, for “care, worry” (about 1430).^[2]

Timeline

• 1155 – Sunge “dream” in Wace's Brut.^[5]
• c. 1175 – The remodelled form songe.^[2]
• 1204–06 – Guiot de Provins uses it for fiction, illusion.^[5]
• 1553 – En songe “in a dream”.^[2]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for a waking fancy.^[5]
• 1699 – Fénelon's Télémaque uses les Songes as mythological figures.^[5]
• 1876 – La clef des songes is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary or dated) A dream: en songe, in a dream, also la clé des songes, the traditional system of dream interpretation.^[11][5]
2. An illusion, something with no more substance than a dream: s'évanouir comme un songe.^[11][2]
3. (literary) A daydream, a creation of the waking imagination.^[11][5]
4. (mythology, in the plural) The Dreams, sons of Sleep.^[5][2]

Word family

• songerie
• songeur
• songe-creux

Related words

• songer
• sommeil
• Latin somnium

Usage notes

The proverb songe, mensonge says that dreams are lies.^[11] Littré also lists a feminine songe, a plant with an edible root (arum esculentum).^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
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. 12, 90b
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert