vain

Forms

vain (feminine vaine, masculine plural vains, feminine plural vaines)^[1] Old French vein (about 1120) beside vain (about 1175); Anglo-Norman also wain.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vain, inherited from Latin vānus (“empty; hollow, without substance; vain”).^[2][5][1][6] Rey places the Latin word in an Indo-European family of words beginning with /w/ that express emptiness or lack, with Sanskrit ऊन (ūna, “lacking”), Ancient Greek εὖνις (eûnis, “bereft”), Old High German wuosti (“empty, waste”) and Irish fás (“empty”), and in Latin vacō (“to be empty”) and vastus.^[2] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“empty”).^[1]

The phrase en vain (about 1120) goes back, according to Bloch and Wartburg, to a popular Latin *in vānum modelled on classical in cassum, “to no purpose”;^[5][7] the TLFi notes the Latin phrase in Seneca and in Christian Latin, especially in the commandment of Exodus 20:7.^[8]

Cognate with Italian vano, Occitan van, Catalan va, Spanish vano and Portuguese vão.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Psautier de Cambridge (first half of the 12th century) veines choses renders the Latin inania: things without substance, value or solid ground.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

Old French took over the whole range of the Latin word.^[2] Besides “illusory, unfounded” it meant “changeable, frivolous” (about 1175, Benoît de Sainte-Maure) and “proud without reason” (1180), whence veine gloire “vainglory” (1174–1178).^[8][2] It also meant “weak, exhausted”, a sense kept until the 17th century and still found in some dialects, and of weather “close, sultry” (1419), in use until the late 18th century.^[2][5]

In the 13th century it took up again the Latin sense “empty, bare”, which survives in vaine pâture, first veinne pasture (1264), land where all the villagers may graze their animals.^[2][5] The common sense “useless, ineffective” appears in the 14th century, and “futile, frivolous” in the 16th (1538).^[2][8] The phrase en vain had many senses in Old French (“falsely”, “in the void”, “unpaid”) but kept only “to no avail”; with “needlessly” it is used in jurer le nom de Dieu en vain (1375).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Vein in the Psautier de Cambridge; the phrase en vain.^[8][2][7]
• 1174–1178 – Veine gloire “vainglory”.^[8]
• c. 1175 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure: “changeable, frivolous”.^[8]
• 1264 – Veinne pasture, common grazing land.^[2]
• 14th century – “Useless, ineffective”.^[2][8]
• 1375 – Jurer le nom de Dieu en vain.^[2]
• 1419 – Of weather, “sultry”.^[2]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne: “futile”.^[2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary) Without real value or meaning, hollow, ce n'est pas un vain mot, it is meant seriously.^[11][12]
2. Without foundation, illusory: une crainte vaine.^[11][12]
3. Useless, ineffective, fruitless: des efforts vains, il est vain de + infinitive, it is pointless to.^[11][1][7]
4. (literary) Of a person: conceited, proud without cause.^[11][1]
5. (old) Empty, bare, (law) vaine pâture, the right to graze animals on unenclosed land after harvest.^[11][8][9]

Word family

• vainement
• en vain

Related words

• vanité
• vaniteux
• vaquer
• vaste
• Latin vānus

Usage notes

En vain, “in vain, to no purpose”, is an adverbial phrase with its own article in the TLFi; in the old sense “needlessly” it lives on in the commandment Dieu en vain tu ne jureras.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 163a
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)