vaste

Pronunciation

• IPA: /vast/^[1]

Forms

vaste (plural vastes)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vāstus (“empty, desolate; devastated; huge”).^[2][3][1][4] The Latin adjective had already given Old French guast, wast and gast “devastated, uncultivated”, whose form shows the influence of a Frankish word, the family of gâter and gâtine; the modern form (1495) is a remodelling of that word on the Latin, and so a borrowing.^[2][5][6] Littré notes that the Old French word, used in the 12th century in the sense “desert”, disappears afterwards and was remade from Latin in the early 17th century.^[7]

The Latin word belongs to a family of Indo-European words in ⟨w-⟩ expressing emptiness, like the source of vain and vaquer.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1495, in Jean de Vignay's Miroir historial, it means desert, uncultivated, uninhabited.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The Old French forms meant “ruined, laid waste”, then “uncultivated, barren”, and gaste maison a deserted house (1372).^[5] The modern form kept the sense of a wild, uninhabited place in the 16th century.^[5]

In the 17th century vaste took the sense “very large”: of an expanse (Bertaut, 1611), a building (1643), a design or project (1623), a crowd (1625) and a huge animal (Corneille, 1656).^[2][8] Cotgrave records the anatomical muscle vaste in 1611.^[2]

Timeline

• 1080 – Old French guast “devastated”.^[5][9]
• 1495 – Vaste “desert” in Jean de Vignay.^[2]
• 1611 – Bertaut: of a great expanse, Cotgrave: muscle vaste.^[2]
• 1623 – Vaste dessein in Théophile de Viau.^[2]
• 1643 – “Spacious”, in Tristan L'Hermite.^[2]
• 1656 – Corneille's vaste éléphant.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Vast, very large in extent: une vaste plaine, un vaste empire.^[9][1]
2. Of a building or garment, very large, spacious, ample.^[9][8]
3. Large in number: un vaste rassemblement.^[9]
4. Wide in scope or range: une vaste culture.^[9][2]
5. (anatomy) Muscle vaste, or le vaste: a large muscle of the thigh.^[9][2]

Related words

• gâter
• dévaster
• Latin vāstus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 209a
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert