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vase

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Etymology and origin of the French word vase

vase1 vessel

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1165–1170
Borrowed from
Latin vas
Ultimate origin
Latin vās
Etymology tree of vase1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin vās
French vase
From the same root · vase1
Latin praes ← vās
Latin vadimōnium ← vās
Latin vāscellum ← vās
Latin vāsculum ← vās

Pronunciation

Forms

vase m (plural vases)[1] Old French vas (1165–1170) and the plural vez (about 1210); the form vase is found from 1539.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the vessel is borrowed from Latin vās (“vessel, container”).[4][2][5][1][6] It was first borrowed as Old French vas (1165–1170) and vez (about 1210), and the present form appears in 1539 in Robert Estienne's dictionary.[2][3][4] In Latin the plural also meant equipment and baggage, in military use, and tools for farming or hunting.[2]

Before it, Old French said vaissel (whence vaisseau), as in the phrase ⟨vaissel d'election⟩ in the late 12th century.[4] Littré compares Genevan vas (“cask”), Occitan vas, Spanish vaso and Italian vaso.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rey gives the oldest sense of vas as “coffin”, matching Old Provençal vas “tomb” (late 12th century); it kept the idea of a container but hardly lasted beyond the 15th century outside the dialects.[2] Vez, about 1210, is a vessel for liquids.[2]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “receptacle” competed with vaisseau and finally ousted it, and lasted into the 19th century; it survives in fixed uses such as the proverb la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase.[2] In religious language, after vaisseau, the word was used of people as vessels of divine grace, in phrases from the Epistles of Paul: vas d'eleccion (13th century), rendering the Christian Latin vas electionis, and vase d'élection (1694); the vases sacrés are the vessels of the Mass (1694).[4][2]

The special sense of a decorated vessel or one for flowers, recorded from 1539, came to colour every other use, so that the general sense became archaic, as had happened to vaisseau, except in fixed phrases.[2] By likeness of shape the word named an ornament set above a cornice (1676), the corolla of a flower (1701) and a way of training fruit trees with the branches in a ring (1845).[4][2] Vase de nuit “chamber pot” is recorded in 1782, vases communiquans in Poisson's mechanics in 1811, and en vase clos, literal in Verne (1874) and figurative in Bernanos (1927).[4] In slang it was used for the anus (1926) and then for luck (1928).[2]

Timeline

  • 1165–1170 – Vas is first recorded, in the sense “coffin”.[2]
  • c. 1210 – Vez names a vessel for liquids.[2]
  • 13th century – Vas d'eleccion in the Légende de Théophile.[4]
  • 1539 – Robert Estienne records vase.[4][2]
  • 1676 – Félibien uses it of an ornament above a cornice.[4]
  • 1694 – The Académie records vase d'élection and vases sacrés.[4]
  • 1701 – Furetière applies it to the corolla of a flower.[4]
  • 1782 – Vase de nuit in Mercier's Tableau de Paris.[4]
  • 1811 – Vases communiquans in Poisson.[4]
  • 1927 – Figurative en vase clos in Bernanos.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dated) Any receptacle or vessel;[8][4] vase de nuit, a chamber pot.[8][4]
  2. A vessel of artistic or historical value, such as a Greek vase.[8]
  3. A vase for cut flowers.[8][1]
  4. (religion) Vases sacrés: the vessels used at Mass.[4][2]
  5. (physics) Vases communicants: communicating vessels.[4][2]
  6. En vase clos: in isolation, without contact with the outside.[4][2]

Word family

  • évaser
  • transvaser
  • extravaser

vase2 silt, mud

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1484 Garcie, Grant routier
Borrowed from
Middle Dutch wase
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *wasô

Pronunciation

Forms

vase f (plural vases)[1] The Norman form voyze, voyse (1396, in a text from Dieppe), then vase (1484).[5][2][3]

Etymology

The word for silt is borrowed from Middle Dutch wase (“mud, silt”).[4][5][2][8][1][9] It came in through the north of France and Normandy: as the Norman form voyze in 1396, again in Norman in 1496, and in Picard as vase in 1484.[2][5] The Grand Robert and Rey also give a first isolated record about 1155;[3][2] the TLFi reads the passage of Wace that the FEW cites for it as another word.[4]

The Middle Dutch word goes back to Proto-Germanic *wasô (“moisture, ground”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“moist, wet”).[1] It belongs to the same Germanic family as the source of gazon, Frankish *wazo (“clod of turf”).[4][10][2] Littré compares Norman gaze and Portuguese vasa.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1484 in Garcie's Grant routier, a sailing guide, for the deposit of very fine particles that gathers at the bottom or edge of ponds, rivers and the sea.[4]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense of its Dutch source, a deposit of earth and particles at the bottom of still waters.[2] It is sometimes used loosely for boue “mud”, especially in Canadian French.[2] Ver de vase, a midge larva used as bait, is recorded in 1874.[4]

Its derivative vaseux (1484) took the familiar senses “out of sorts, tired” (about 1833) and “muddled, obscure” of an argument (1896), and gave the slang verb vasouiller (1904).[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1155 – An isolated first record, according to the Grand Robert and Rey.[3][2]
  • 1396 – The Norman form voyze in a text from Dieppe.[5]
  • 1484 – Vase in Garcie's Grant routier.[4]
  • 1484 – Vaseux “muddy” is recorded.[5][2]
  • 1687 – The nautical adjective vasard.[4]
  • 1874 – Ver de vase.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. silt, mud: a deposit of earth and decaying organic matter at the bottom of still or slow waters.[8][4][1]
  2. (figurative) mire, filth.[4]

Word family

  • vaseux
  • envaser
  • envasement
  • vasière
  • vasard
  • vasouiller

Usage notes

A third, slang word vase “water” (about 1870) may be an adaptation of the German word Wasser through Savoyard slang, or a figurative use of vase “silt”.[2][3] The TLFi records it in 1883.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 x y z 27 28 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f 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, 189a
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 545a
  10. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)

Related etymologies

  • placard · also from Middle Dutch
  • bloc · also from Middle Dutch
  • cabaret · also from Middle Dutch
  • pompe · also from Middle Dutch
  • ruban · also from Middle Dutch
  • étape · also from Middle Dutch
  • crabe · also from Middle Dutch
  • pique · also from Middle Dutch
Cite this entry

“Vase.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/vase. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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