tourmente

Forms

tourmente f (plural tourmentes)^[1] Old French turmente (about 1112 to 1155) and tormente (about 1175); tourmente from the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French turmente, inherited from Latin tormenta, the plural of tormentum (“torture, torment”) taken as a feminine singular.^[4][2][3][1] The TLFi points to this feminine in variant readings of manuscripts of Cyprian (3rd century) and Lactantius (early 4th century).^[4] Bloch and Wartburg instead treat it as a noun formed from the verb tourmenter.^[5]

Cognate with Italian tormenta (“snowstorm”) and Spanish tormenta and Portuguese tormenta “storm at sea”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Benedeit's Voyage of Saint Brendan (early 12th century) uses it both for a sudden violent storm at sea and for torment or bodily pain.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The storm was at first at sea, then on land in Chrétien de Troyes (1176–1181).^[4] The mountain sense, whirlwinds in the high Alps, is a dialect word of the Alpine valleys brought into French by Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1788).^[4] In Old French it also meant torture and bodily pain (12th century) and, about 1250, worry or distress, but the word has since drifted away from tourmenter.^[4][2]

The sense “storm” has become literary; the figurative sense, violent troubles shaking a country, dates from the Revolution (1794, Babeuf) and is the most alive today.^[2][7]

Timeline

• Early 12th century – Benedeit uses it for a storm at sea and for torment.^[4]
• 1176–1181 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for a storm on land.^[4]
• c. 1250 – Estre en grant tormente “to be in great distress”.^[4]
• 1678 – The derivative tourmentin is recorded.^[2]
• 1788 – Saussure writes of mountain whirlwinds called tourmentes.^[4]
• 1794 – Babeuf uses it for troubles shaking a country.^[7][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A sudden, violent storm: une tourmente de neige.^[8][9]
2. (figurative) Violent political or social upheaval: la tourmente révolutionnaire.^[8][9]

Word family

• tourmentin
• tourmenteux

Related words

• tourment
• tourmenter
• Latin tormentum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b 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 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
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)