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vapeur

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Etymology and origin of the French word vapeur

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1265 Brunetto Latini, Trésor More words from the 13th century
Borrowed from
Latin vapor via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin vapor
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vapor
English vapor
French vapeur
Romanian vapor
From the same root
Latin vapidus ← vapor
Latin vapōrō ← vapor

Pronunciation

Forms

vapeur f (plural vapeurs)[1] Old French vapour and vapor; the form vapeur is found from about 1270.[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vapour, borrowed from Latin vapor (“steam, exhalation, smoke”), borrowed about 1265.[2][3][4] In Imperial Latin the word also meant “heat” and figuratively “hot flushes” and “excitement”, and Christian authors used it for “vanity”.[2] French made it feminine, against the Latin masculine, by analogy with the other nouns in -eur.[2][4]

The origin of the Latin word is obscure: Rey notes that it has only been compared with Lithuanian kvãpas (“vapour, smoke”).[3] Littré gives the cognates Old Occitan vapor, Spanish vapor and Italian vapore.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brunetto Latini's Trésor (about 1265) has vapour for a kind of smoke rising from moist bodies when they are heated.[2] Littré quotes the same text: Lors s'en ist une vapors aussi comme fumée “then a vapour comes out of it, like smoke”.[5]

Semantic evolution

Old and Middle French took over only the first Latin sense; in the 17th century the word also covered any exhalation from liquid or solid bodies, now an archaic use.[3] In the old medicine it named a humour thought to rise from the lower body to the brain (1609, Régnier), whence les vapeurs (1650), the fits and malaises it was blamed for, and vapeur de fille (1684, Mme de Sévigné), an old name for hysteria.[2][3] In the singular it was anything that clouds the brain, such as alcohol (1610), and figuratively something vain and passing (1609).[2][3]

From the 1780s vapeur meant the steam used as motive power (1784), in à vapeur “steam-driven” (1794).[2][3] Machine à vapeur translates the English steam engine and replaced the older pompe à feu and machine à feu.[2][3] Cooking à la vapeur is recorded in 1825.[2] Figurative à toute vapeur “at full speed” dates from 1868 (à la vapeur 1865), and renverser la vapeur came to mean “to change course entirely”.[3][2] English vapour comes from the Anglo-French word and directly from Latin, in the late 14th century.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 1265 – Vapour appears in Brunetto Latini's Trésor.[2]
  • c. 1270 – The form vapeur is found.[3]
  • late 14th century – English borrows it as vapour.[6]
  • 1575 – Paré uses it specifically for water vapour.[2]
  • 1609 – Régnier uses it for a humour rising to the brain.[2]
  • 1684 – Vapeur de fille for hysteria, in Mme de Sévigné.[2]
  • 1784 – Steam as a motive force.[2]
  • 1794 – The Journal des Mines adopts machine à vapeur.[2]
  • 1825 – Brillat-Savarin cooks à la vapeur.[2]
  • 1828 – Une vapeur “a steamship”, soon replaced by the masculine.[3]
  • 1841 – Un vapeur “a steamship”.[3][7]
  • 1868 – À toute vapeur in Jules Verne.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A visible mass of fine droplets of water in the air, a mist or haze.[7][2]
  2. steam, water in the gaseous state, especially as a source of power: machine à vapeur, bateau à vapeur.[7]
  3. À la vapeur: steamed, cooked over boiling water: du poisson à la vapeur.[7]
  4. À toute vapeur: at full steam, at top speed.[7]
  5. Renverser la vapeur: to reverse the engine, and figuratively to change course abruptly.[7]
  6. (physics, chemistry) A substance in the gaseous state below its critical temperature: vapeur d'essence.[7]
  7. (dated) An exhalation or fume rising from a body.[7]
  8. (dated, in the plural) Les vapeurs: fits of faintness or melancholy formerly thought to rise from the humours to the brain.[7][3]
  9. (masculine, dated) A steamship.[7]

Word family

  • cheval-vapeur
  • vaporisateur
  • vaporisation
  • vaporiser
  • vaporisage
  • vaporiseur
  • vapocraquage

Usage notes

The masculine un vapeur “steamship” is an ellipsis of bateau à vapeur, recorded from 1841–42 after a short-lived feminine une vapeur (1828); it is now dated.[7][8][3] Bloch and Wartburg call bateau à vapeur a calque of English steamboat, while Rey points to steamship.[4][3] Être à voile et à vapeur is a familiar phrase.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Vapeur.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/vapeur. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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