vaudou

Forms

vaudou m (plural vaudous)^[1] First recorded as vaudoux (1797), a spelling still used in the 19th century.^[2][3][4] As an adjective it is often left invariable (des poupées vaudou), but a feminine vaudoue is also recommended and used.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Fon vodu, a word of the Fon language of Dahomey (now Benin) in West Africa, which was also used in Haitian Creole and in the Lesser Antilles.^[2][3][6] The French Wiktionary glosses the Fon word as “god”.^[7] Moreau de Saint-Méry, who first recorded it, wrote that among the Arada people of Saint-Domingue the word meant an all-powerful, supernatural being on whom all events depended.^[2]

The English word voodoo (1820) came from the Louisiana French form of the same word.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1797 Moreau de Saint-Méry's description of the French part of Saint-Domingue uses Vaudoux as the name of a long-known dance of the black population, and of the being its followers worshipped.^[2] Rey calls the sense “a dance of black people” a superficial misreading.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Taken up again in the middle of the 19th century (1864), the word came to name, more correctly, the animist cult that originated in Benin and spread among black communities of the Antilles and Haiti.^[3][6] By metonymy it also named a god of this cult and a follower of it, senses the GLLF dates to the 1870s.^[3][4] It has been used as an adjective since 1868, when Daudet wrote of a culte Vaudoux.^[2][3]

Alfred Métraux's study Le Vaudou haïtien (1958) made the cult better known, and it inspired francophone writers such as Roumain and Depestre.^[3] Its Brazilian counterpart is the candomblé.^[3]

Timeline

• 1797 – Moreau de Saint-Méry records Vaudoux, the name of a dance and of a supernatural being, in Saint-Domingue.^[2][3]
• 1820 – The English word voodoo is first recorded.^[8]
• 1839 – Boiste's dictionary lists the word as the name of a dance.^[4]
• 1864 – The word is used of the animist cult.^[3][6]
• 1868 – Daudet uses it as an adjective in culte Vaudoux.^[2]
• 1876 – Larousse records the spelling vaudou and the senses “cult” and “god of the cult”.^[4]
• 1958 – Alfred Métraux publishes Le Vaudou haïtien.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Voodoo, an animist cult of African origin practised mainly in Haiti and the Antilles, mixing magic and sorcery with elements of Christian ritual.^[9][2][10]
2. A god of this cult.^[2][10]
3. A follower of this cult.^[2][4]

Adjective

1. Of or relating to voodoo: des tambours vaudou.^[9][5]

Word family

• vaudouisme
• vaudouisant

Related words

• English voodoo

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)