venteux

Forms

venteux (feminine venteuse, masculine plural venteux, feminine plural venteuses)^[1] Old French venteus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ventōsus (“full of wind, windswept”), from ventus (“wind”).^{[2][4][3][5][6]} Wiktionary also allows a French formation, from French vent + -eux.^[1]

Cognate with Italian ventoso, Spanish ventoso and Old Occitan ventos.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record, venteus in Aldebrandin of Siena's Régime du corps (about 1256), is a medical term: “causing flatulence”.^[2][3] The GLLF reports an earlier 12th-century record without a sense.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “windy”, of a place or of the weather, follows in the late 14th century: about 1380 in the Aalma glossary and temps venteux in 1389.^[5][2][3] In the 16th century the word was often figurative, “vain, puffed up” or “light and swift as the wind”,^[3] as in Montaigne's faveurs venteuses, “empty favours”.^[7] The medical sense survived in colique venteuse, used by Paré about 1560.^[5][7] Today only the weather sense is current.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1256 – Venteus “causing flatulence” in Aldebrandin of Siena.^[2]
• c. 1380 – The Aalma glossary has it for a windy place or time.^[5][3]
• 1389 – Temps venteux “windy weather”.^[2]
• 16th century – Often figurative: “vain, puffed up”.^[3][7]
• c. 1560 – Paré writes colique venteuse.^[5]
• 1627 – Vins laxatifs et venteux in a translation of Mattioli's commentary on Dioscorides.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. windy: exposed to the wind, or marked by much wind: une côte venteuse, un automne venteux.^[2][8][9]
2. Of the nature of the wind.^[2]
3. (dated, medicine) Causing or caused by intestinal gas: colique venteuse.^[5][7]

Related words

• vent
• ventouse
• Latin ventōsus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 253b
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)