testicule

Forms

testicule m (plural testicules)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin testiculus (“testicle”), a diminutive from Latin testis (“testicle”), a word almost always used in the plural.^[2][3][4][1] The anatomical sense is a special use of the same Latin word in the sense “witness”, the testicles being regarded as the witnesses of virility;^[2][3][5] Plautus often plays on the two meanings.^[2][3][5] Old French made the same image with tesmoings, literally “witnesses”, in the plural, recorded at the end of the 13th century.^[2][3]

Bloch and Wartburg date the borrowing only to the 15th century, and the GLLF follows them, with a next record in Robert Estienne's dictionary of 1539.^[6][7] Littré compares Occitan testicul, Spanish testiculo and Italian testicolo.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1304, in the Placides et Timeo, for the male genital gland.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Brought into French by the anatomists, the word, mostly used in the plural, stayed a technical term of medicine, anatomy and botany, though it also became the ordinary name for the organ beside many familiar and vulgar synonyms such as couille.^[3][5] It replaced the Old French tesmoings.^[3]

At first it could name any genital gland: in 1575 the plural also meant the ovaries, a sense Littré still records; in the 18th century it narrowed to the male gland.^[3][8] Learned metaphors gave it other senses that have now gone: the lower pair of the quadrigeminal bodies of the brain (1690–1771) and various univalve shells (1712–1876).^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1304 – First recorded, in the Placides et Timeo.^[2][4]
• 1539 – Robert Estienne records it.^[7]
• 1575 – The plural is used for the ovaries.^[3]
• 1690 – It names a pair of tubercles of the brain, a sense used until 1771.^[3]
• 1712 – It names univalve shells, a sense used until 1876.^[3]
• 1805 – The derivative testiculaire appears, in masse testiculaire.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A testicle, the oval male gonad hung in the scrotum, which produces sperm and male hormones: Le chirurgien a examiné les deux testicules.^[5][2]
2. Specifically, this organ with its coverings, in the higher vertebrates.^[5][2]

Word family

• testiculaire

Related words

• témoin
• Latin testis

Usage notes

It is mostly used in the plural.^[2][3] Littré also records testicule de chien as a name of the male orchid.^[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 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. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette