Etymologically
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vaste

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Pronunciation

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]

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