ventilateur

Forms

ventilateur m (plural ventilateurs)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English ventilator, the name that the English scientist Stephen Hales gave to his invention in 1743, a calque of Latin ventilātor (“winnower”).^[2][3][4][5] The French word first appears in 1744 in M. Demours's translation of Hales's “A Description of Ventilators”.^[2][4] The GLLF and Rey treat it rather as a learned derivative of ventiler, probably influenced by the English word.^[6][7] The Latin noun is formed from the supine of ventilō (“to fan, expose to the air”),^[4][6] itself from ventus (“wind”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1744, in the French translation of Hales's A Description of Ventilators, for a machine that sets the air in motion.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a device that stirs or renews the air has stayed the usual one, while the device itself changed: the swinging punkah, the fan and finally, in the 20th century, the electric fan with blades.^[7][2] Littré notes that the first ventilators had been invented in 1744.^[8]

The word also named a winnowing machine for grain (1770), an air pipe for a cesspit (1771), rotating machines that drive a current of air into a furnace (1835) and later the fan that cools the radiator of a car (1903).^[2][6][7] In familiar French it is shortened to ventilo.^[5]

Timeline

• 1743 – Stephen Hales names his invention ventilator in English.^[2]
• 1744 – Ventilateur appears in M. Demours's translation of Hales.^[2][4]
• 1770 – Galiani uses it for a winnowing machine.^[2][6]
• 1771 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records it for an air pipe of a cesspit.^[2][6]
• 1835 – The Académie records it for machines that blow air into a furnace.^[2]
• 1903 – It names the fan that cools a car's radiator.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fan, an appliance that stirs the air to cool a room: Le ventilateur tournait toute la nuit..^[5][2]
2. A machine that produces a stronger current of air, as for feeding a fire or ventilating a mine.^[5][2]
3. The fan that cools an engine: courroie de ventilateur “fan belt”.^[5][2]

Word family

• ventilo

Related words

• ventilation
• ventiler
• vent
• Latin ventilātor
• English ventilator

References

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