transplanter

Forms

transplanter^[1] Old French tresplanter, an isolated record of the first half of the 12th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin transplantō (“to transplant”), a Late Latin verb of the Vulgate,^[3][2] formed from trāns- (“across, beyond”) and plantō (“to plant”), itself from planta (“plant, shoot”).^[4][3][5] An isolated Old French tresplanter in the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century) translates the Latin participle trānsplantātus;^[2] the Grand Robert and the GLLF give another isolated record of 1373.^[6][4] The word was taken up for good in 1528.^[2][3]

Littré lists Occitan transplantar, Spanish trasplantar and Italian traspiantare beside it.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century), tresplanter means “uprooted and replanted elsewhere”; the modern form appears in 1528 in Christol's translation of Platina, as a gardening word.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From gardening the verb was extended to moving something out of its native setting into another, where it is to take root (1585, Noël du Fail);^[2][3] the GLLF and the Petit Robert date this figurative use from Montaigne in 1580, who wrote that ways of speaking, like herbs, improve and grow stronger when transplanted.^[4][8][7] It was applied to people moved from one place or country to another to settle there in 1657,^[2][3] and the reflexive se transplanter “to move and settle elsewhere” followed in 1690.^[3][4]

Much later, probably under the influence of transplantation, it took a biological sense, “to graft an organ taken from another individual” (1898, Ollier), parallel to greffe², another word of horticultural origin.^[2][3] The past participle transplanté was used as a noun first of uprooted people (1898) and then, in medicine, of a transplant patient (1967).^[2][3]

Timeline

• First half of the 12th century – Tresplanter in the Cambridge Psalter, an isolated record.^[2]
• 1528 – Transplanter in Christol's translation of Platina, of plants.^[2]
• 1556 – The noun transplantation appears.^[3]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it figuratively of ways of speaking.^[4][8]
• 1585 – Noël du Fail uses it of moving something into another setting.^[2]
• 1657 – First used of people moved to another country.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Se transplanter is recorded by Furetière.^[4][3]
• 1898 – Ollier uses it of grafted skin, the surgical sense.^[2]
• 1967 – Un transplanté names a transplant patient.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take a plant out of the ground with its roots and replant it elsewhere; to transplant.^[8][2][7]
2. (biology, surgery) To graft an organ, or part of one, taken from another individual into a living body; also, to place an embryo in a womb other than the mother's.^[2][8][4]
3. (figurative) To move a person, a people or a thing from one country or setting to another, to settle it there.^[2][8][7]
4. Se transplanter: to move to another place and settle there.^[7][3]

Word family

• transplant
• transplantable
• transplantoir

Related words

• transplantation
• planter
• Latin transplantō

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 p q r 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 n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 25a
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert