ventiler

Forms

ventiler^[1] Old French venteler (late 11th century); the form ventiler is found from about 1265.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman venteler, also written ventiler, ventoler and ventuler.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ventilō (“to expose to the wind, to fan, to discuss”), at first in the adapted form venteler.^[2][3][5][6] The Latin verb comes from ventus (“wind”);^[3][7] in country speech it meant “to winnow grain”, and in late legal Latin “to discuss, debate (a question)”.^[3][8] Picoche counts the verb among the learned words of the family of vent.^[8]

Cognate with Occitan ventilar, Spanish ventilar and Italian ventilare.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As venteler it is first found at the end of the 11th century in Rashi's glosses, meaning “to wave (a flag) in the air”, and about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland as “to flutter in the wind”.^[2][3] The 12th-century Livre des Rois has ultre mer les ventelerad (“he will scatter them beyond the sea”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The old venteler “wave, flutter in the wind” lasted into the 17th century, and a figurative “to shake up, harass” (about 1126) rests on the same image as vanner.^[3] From Latin came the legal sense “to examine or plead a case” (about 1265, Brunetto Latini), now gone,^[2][3] and in 1404 Christine de Pizan used the verb for “to make public”.^[2] The technical senses “to winnow (grain)” (1611) and “to dry” have also gone.^[3]

The concrete sense arrived in the 19th century: first “to cool (the body)” (1820, Lamartine), then “to renew the air in a closed place” (1842), now the main sense.^[3][2][5] Separately, in law and trade, ventiler meant from 1611 “to value one or more portions in relation to the whole in a sale”; at the end of the 19th century it came to mean “to distribute among several accounts”, and in the mid-20th century, more generally, “to divide into several groups”.^[3][2] Littré gave the two senses separate articles.^[7]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Venteler “wave in the air” appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2]
• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses it for “to flutter in the wind”.^[2][3]
• c. 1265 – Brunetto Latini's Trésor has ventiler “to examine, debate”.^[2][9]
• 1404 – Christine de Pizan uses it for “to make public”.^[2]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records se ventiler “to fan oneself”.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense “to value, estimate”.^[2][3]
• 1820 – Lamartine uses it for “to cool the body”.^[5][3]
• 1842 – The Académie's supplement records “to renew the air of a closed place”.^[2]
• 1904 – The Nouveau Larousse illustré records the bookkeeping sense “to distribute among accounts”.^[2]
• 1949 – First record of “to divide into groups”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ventilate, air: to produce a current of air in a place, to renew its air.^[10][2][11]
2. (medicine) To give (a patient) artificial ventilation.^[10]
3. (law) To value one or more portions of a sale in relation to the whole.^[10][3]
4. (accounting) To apportion a total sum among several accounts: ventiler les frais de l'année.^[10][2]
5. To divide things or people into several groups.^[10][2]
6. (dated) To discuss, debate.^[1][2]

Word family

• ventileuse

Related words

• ventilateur
• ventilation
• vent
• Latin ventilō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 252a
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)