tropique

Forms

tropique m (plural tropiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin tropicus (“tropical, of the tropic”), also used in Latin as a noun for the tropic,^[2][3][4] borrowed by Oresme in 1377.^[2][3] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek τροπικός (tropikós, “relating to change, especially of the seasons”), which as a noun, short for a phrase with κύκλος (kúklos, “circle”), named the circle of the tropic or solstice.^[2][3][4] It is formed on τρόπος (trópos, “a turn, the turning of the sun”).^[2][5][6] A 16th-century pilot's manual explains the name: when the sun reaches either circle it turns back towards the equator.^[5][7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Oresme uses it in 1377, in his Livre du ciel et du monde, for the two tropics of the heavens between which the planets move.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century it passed from astronomy to geography: tropique du Cancer is recorded in 1532 and tropique du Capricorne in 1562; the variant tropique du Cancre (1562) went out of use in the 18th century.^[2][3] Crossing the tropics gave passer les tropiques (Rabelais, 1546) and the sailors' mock ceremony of the baptême du tropique (1678), led by the bonhomme Tropique (1784).^[2]

By metonymy the word, mostly in the plural, came to mean the hot region between the two tropics (1765), as in maladie des tropiques “yellow fever” (1845) and oiseau de tropique (1765), later oiseau du tropique, the tropicbird.^[2][3] As an adjective it is used above all in année tropique (1746, after an tropique, 1691);^[2][3] its botanical use for flowers that open at sunrise and close at sunset (1783) has died out.^[3][2] The derivative tropical followed in 1801 according to Rey, in 1824 according to Bloch and Wartburg.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1377 – Oresme uses it for the two tropics of the sky.^[2][3]
• 1532 – Tropique du Cancer appears in a French translation of Peter Martyr.^[2][3]
• 1546 – Rabelais writes of passing the two tropics.^[2]
• 1562 – Tropique du Capricorne is recorded.^[2][4]
• 1678 – Baptême du tropique is recorded.^[2]
• 1691 – The adjective appears in an tropique.^[2][3]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses it for the region of the tropics and records oiseau de tropique.^[2][3]
• 1845 – Maladie des tropiques “yellow fever” is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of the two parallels of the Earth about 23°27′ north and south of the equator, where the sun is at the zenith at a solstice: tropique du Cancer (northern), tropique du Capricorne (southern).^[8][2][7]
2. (astronomy) Each of the corresponding circles of the celestial sphere.^[2]
3. Les tropiques (formerly le tropique): the hot region between the two tropics.^[8][2]
4. Baptême du tropique: a mock ceremony for sailors and passengers crossing the tropic for the first time.^[2][8]
5. Oiseau du tropique, oiseau des tropiques: a tropicbird.^[2][3]

Adjective

1. (astronomy) Année tropique: the mean interval between two returns of the sun to the spring equinox.^[8][3]

Word family

• tropical

Related words

• trope
• tropisme
• Ancient Greek τρόπος (trópos)

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert list a separate learned adjective tropique (the Grand Robert's tropique 2), a term of rhetoric meaning “relating to a trope, figurative”, recorded from 1531 and taken from Latin tropus (“trope”).^[6][8] The BHVF finds it in 1531 for “symbolic” in Egyptology, a use the TLFi lacks.^[9]

References

1. ^ 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 s t u v w 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 o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b 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
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF