vanille

Forms

vanille f (plural vanilles)^[1] Early spellings bainilla (1672) and bannille (1698) in translations of English travel books.^[2] A 17th-century variant banille (1688) reflects an oral borrowing from Castilian.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish vainilla, first “pod” and then the fruit of the vanilla plant, a diminutive of vaina (“sheath, case”), from Latin vāgīna (“sheath”).^[2][4][5][1] The TLFi notes that the word first reached French through English and Dutch texts.^[2] Meyer-Lübke lists the Spanish word under Vulgar Latin *vaginella (“pod”), and names it as the source of Italian vaniglia and of the French word.^[6]

It is thus related to gaine and vagin.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rey and Bloch–Wartburg date the word to 1664; the TLFi's first record is Bainilla in a 1672 translation of Thomas Gage's account of Mexico, naming the fruit of the vanilla plant, dried and used to flavour pastry, sweets and perfume.^[3][4][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the fruit of the plant, then the pod.^[3] From the end of the 18th century (1797) it also named the aromatic substance taken from it.^[3][2] It then came to mean the taste or scent of vanilla, as in crème à la vanille and, in apposition, glace vanille, and loosely a similar flavour obtained without the plant, as from vanillin.^[3]

Littré records liqueur de vanille, or simply vanille, for a liqueur made with the fruit, brandy and sugar,^[7] and he also gives the word for a heliotrope whose flowers smell like vanilla.^[7] The plant itself came to be called vanillier (1764).^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1664 – First record, in Boulan.^[8][3]
• 1672 – Bainilla appears in a French translation of Thomas Gage's travels.^[2]
• 1684 – The form vanille is used by Philippe Dufour in his treatise on coffee, tea and chocolate.^[2]
• 1688 – The variant banille is recorded.^[3]
• 1764 – The plant is named vanillier.^[3][4]
• 1797 – First used for the perfume extracted from the fruit.^[2][3]
• 1845 – The adjective vanillé “flavoured with vanilla” appears.^[3]
• 1872 – Littré records liqueur de vanille.^[8][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The long aromatic pod of the vanilla plant, which turns black when dried.^[9][10][11]
2. The aromatic substance or flavouring taken from this pod, or made artificially, used in pastry and confectionery: une glace à la vanille.^[9][10][11]
3. (rare) The vanilla plant, a climbing tropical orchid.^[9][2]
4. Crème de vanille: a liqueur made by steeping vanilla pods in brandy.^[8][11]

Word family

• vanillier
• vanilline

Related words

• gaine
• vagin
• Latin vāgīna

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)