thermomètre

Forms

thermomètre m (plural thermomètres)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed with the elements from French thermo- + -mètre, according to the TLFi, the Grand Robert and Wiktionary.^[2][3][1] The revised TLF-Étym notice instead takes it as borrowed from New Latin thermometrum (“thermometer”), a word of the scientists' spoken Latin.^[4] That Latin form is not written down before 1646, twenty years after the French word, but the French word is the first name of a measuring instrument ending in ⟨-mètre⟩ and the first French word with ⟨therm(o)-⟩, which argues against a French formation.^[4] The TLF-Étym explains the change from the earlier Latin name thermoscopium (from 1620) by the scale of degrees that the new instrument carried, which made it a device for measuring temperature and not only for showing its changes.^[4]

The elements go back to Ancient Greek θερμός (thermós, “hot”) and μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^[5][6][7] Etymonline credits the coinage to the Jesuit Jean Leurechon.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest copy found of the word is in the 1626 edition of the Récréation mathématique published under the name of van Etten (Jean Leurechon), whose table lists “Du Thermometre ou instrument pour mesurer les degrez de chaleur et la temperie de l'air” (“on the thermometer, or instrument for measuring the degrees of heat and the temper of the air”).^[4] The TLFi dates it 1624 after the Oxford English Dictionary, but no copy of a 1624 edition is known.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Only a few uses of the word are found in the first half of the 17th century.^[4] The figurative sense of a sign or index by which something can be gauged is found from 1682, in Duncan's Chymie naturelle, where thirst is called “the thermometer of the stomach”;^[4] Furetière's dictionary records it in 1701.^[4] The TLFi and the GLLF date this sense to 1694, in Regnard, and the DHLF to 1687.^[2][7][8]

In everyday use the word is above all the clinical thermometer, linked with fever, and the instrument giving the temperature of the air (1839).^[8] Scales were added to the name as instruments improved: thermomètre centigrade and thermomètre de Réaumur are in Littré in 1872, thermomètre médical in Larousse in 1923.^[7] The English thermometer, recorded from 1633, comes from a translation of the Récréation mathématique, which the TLF-Étym takes to be the source of the international word.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1626 – First found in the Récréation mathématique of van Etten (Jean Leurechon).^[4]
• 1633 – English thermometer appears in a translation of the same book.^[4]
• 1646 – First record of the Latin thermometrum.^[4]
• 1682 – Figurative sense “sign that allows something to be gauged”.^[4]
• 1701 – Furetière's dictionary records the figurative sense.^[4]
• 1754 – The derivative thermométrique appears.^[8]
• 1842 – The derivative thermométrie appears.^[8]
• 1872 – Littré records thermomètre centigrade.^[7]
• 1923 – Larousse records thermomètre médical.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thermometer, an instrument for measuring temperature, usually by the expansion of a liquid or gas in a graduated tube.^[9][2]
2. Thermomètre médical: a clinical thermometer, for the temperature of the body.^[9][7]
3. (figurative) Something that shows the degree or state of something else, an indicator.^[2][7][4]

Word family

• thermométrique
• thermométrie

Related words

• thermoscope
• English thermometer

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert