succulent

Forms

succulent (feminine succulente, masculine plural succulents, feminine plural succulentes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin succulentus (“full of juice, full of health”), a variant of suculentus, derived from sucus (“juice”) (also spelled succus).^[2][3][4][5] It is a learned borrowing of 1512.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert date it to about 1500, and the BHVF cites a record from the end of the 15th century.^[6][7][8] The noun suc comes from the same Latin word.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean Lemaire de Belges uses it in 1512, in his Illustrations, of the humidité succulente of the Naiads, meaning full of nourishing juice and so full of sap and health.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first kept the Latin sense.^[3] From about 1560 Ambroise Paré applied it to a well-fed, plump person, a sense that has died out.^[3][2][9] In the 17th century it described meat or fruit full of juice (viande succulente, 1671; generally 1690), whence it passed into botany for fleshy plants (1829); the plural noun once named a family of such plants.^[2][3][5]

From 1734, in Marivaux, it meant delicious in taste, the only sense still in general use, and by 1814 it was applied figuratively to things other than food.^[2][3] Medicine took up the original sense again in 1898 for an organ swollen with lymph.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1512 – Jean Lemaire de Belges uses it for something full of juice.^[2]
• c. 1560 – Paré applies it to a well-fed person.^[3][5]
• 1671 – Viande succulente is recorded for nourishing food.^[2]
• 1734 – Marivaux uses it for a delicious dinner.^[2][3]
• 1769 – The derivative succulence appears, in Restif.^[3][6]
• 1829 – It is used as a botanical term.^[2][3]
• 1898 – Medicine uses it for an organ swollen with lymph.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Delicious, full of flavour: Ma grand-mère prépare un gratin succulent.^[7][2]
2. (figurative) Delightful, highly enjoyable: un récit succulent.^[7]
3. (botany) Of a plant: with fleshy tissues rich in water, succulent.^[7][2]
4. (dated) Full of juice: of fruit or meat.^[2][5]

Word family

• succulence
• succulemment

Related words

• suc
• Latin sucus

Usage notes

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has an adjective succulent from the second third of the 13th century, used of raw, unwashed wool.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)