translateur

Forms

translateur m (plural translateurs, feminine translatrice)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin trānslātor (“one who carries over”), which in Late Latin also meant “translator” and “copyist”.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed from the supine of trānsferō (“to carry across”).^[6][4] The FEW and the GLLF date it to the end of the 12th century, the TLFi to the beginning of the 13th.^[7][4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, in Li Epistle Saint Bernard a Mont Deu (early 13th century), speaks of the old translators of the Book of Job, that is, translators.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French it also meant one who moves something elsewhere, as in Antoine de La Sale.^[9] Richelet called it old and burlesque in 1680, and in the 18th century it was used only of a poor translator;^[3] Littré still describes it as an old word used in the manner of Marot, or of a writer who translates slavishly.^[10]

In 1904 it took a technical sense, an apparatus between two distant telegraph stations, and in the 1960s it named a computing device that converts one code into another.^[3][2][4]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – First recorded, “translator”.^[2]
• c. 1442–1444 – Antoine de La Sale uses it for one who drives another away.^[9]
• 1680 – Richelet calls it old and burlesque.^[3]
• 1904 – The Nouveau Larousse illustré records the technical sense “relay apparatus”.^[2][3]
• 1964 – Larousse records the computing sense.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A translator; a traducteur.^[2][4][1]
2. (games) One who moves a stake.^[2]
3. (computing) A device that converts information from one code into another.^[2][4]
4. (telecommunications) A relay apparatus between two distant telegraph or teleprinter stations.^[3][4]

Related words

• translater
• translation
• Latin trānslātor

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 13/2, 209b
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette