statue

Forms

statue f (plural statues)^[1] Old French estatue beside statue.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin statua (“statue”), first as inherited from Old French estatue in the first half of the 12th century and as statue about 1170.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is a derivative of statuō (“to set up, place”),^[2][3][4] from the root of stō (“to stand”).^[6][7] Littré explained statua instead as a form of statīvus (“standing”).^[8]

The DHLF calls the form with initial /e/ the more evolved one; it lived on in popular, incorrect usage until the 20th century.^[3]

Cognate with Italian statua, Spanish estatua and Old Occitan estatua.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Oxford Psalter (first half of the 12th century) as estatües, for the silver and gold images of the heathen nations.^[2][8][4]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, the word names a sculpture in the round representing a whole living being.^[3] The Académie in 1694 set statue grecque, nude or barely draped, against statue romaine, draped or armed in the Roman way.^[3] Being older than sculpture, it remains the usual word for a figurative work of that art; today it covers busts and animal figures too, a wider sense than in classical French.^[3]

From the 15th century it is used figuratively of a motionless, expressionless person: Juvénal des Ursins writes of Scots who stood comme statues de pierre.^[4][3][8] Furetière in 1690 has it for an unfeeling person,^[2] and comparisons such as droit comme une statue (1668) are still in use.^[3][4] In the 20th century la statue de… came to describe a person who seems to embody a feeling.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Estatües appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][4]
• c. 1170 – The form statue appears in the Livre des Rois.^[2]
• c. 1220 – The form estatue is recorded again.^[3]
• 15th century – Juvénal des Ursins uses it of motionless people.^[4][8]
• 1496 – statuaire is borrowed from Latin.^[3]
• 1627 – The diminutive statuette is recorded.^[3]
• 1668 – Racine writes droit comme une statue.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “unfeeling person”.^[2]
• 1888 – The verb statufier is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A statue, a sculpture in the round representing a whole figure: statue équestre.^[10][11][3]
2. (figurative, literary) A symbol of stillness or coldness, a motionless person: droit comme une statue;^[11][10][4] statue de sel, a person turned to stone.^[11][10][4]
3. A person who seems to embody a feeling: la statue de la douleur.^[10][3]

Word family

• statuette
• statufier

Related words

• statuaire
• statuer
• station
• stature
• Latin statua

Usage notes

Bloch and Wartburg date statuette to 1800, the DHLF to 1627.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b 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 c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 12, 246b
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)