vessie

Forms

vessie f (plural vessies)^[1] Old French vescie and vesie, Middle French vecie.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vessie, inherited from Vulgar Latin *vessīca, an altered form of vēsīca (“bladder, a bag made of bladder”).^{[2][4][5][6][1][7]} Rey relates the Latin word to a Sanskrit word for the bladder and to Old High German wanst (“paunch”).^[4] The learned vésical comes from the same Latin family.^[4][6]

Cognate with Italian vescica, Old Occitan vesiga, Catalan veixiga, Spanish vejiga, Portuguese bexiga and Romanian bășică.^[8][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Jean Bodel's Jeu de saint Nicolas (1200), in a phrase for a thing of no value, as if full of nothing but air.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century, as in Latin, it named an animal's bladder taken from the body, dried and blown up with air; a fabliau compares people to a cow's bladder swollen with wind, which empties as soon as a needle pierces it.^[2][4][3] The anatomical sense, the organ in which urine collects, is recorded in Henri de Mondeville's surgery in 1314.^[2][4] From the 14th century it also meant a blister on the skin, as in Latin.^[4] In 1690 Furetière records it for the air-filled membrane inside a ball,^[2][4] and vessie natatoire, the swim bladder of fish, dates from the late 18th century.^[4]

The saying prendre des vessies pour des lanternes “to be grossly mistaken” is found in this form in the 19th century, but goes back to older phrases such as vendre vessie pour lanterne, comparing the two objects for their shape and translucency;^[4] Bloch and Wartburg trace it to the 13th century,^[5] and Littré quotes De vecies, que sont lanternes ? from the 15th-century Farce de Maître Pathelin.^[3]

Timeline

• 1200 – Jean Bodel uses vessie for a worthless thing.^[2]
• 13th century – It names an animal's dried, air-filled bladder.^[2][4]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville uses it for the urinary bladder.^[2]
• 15th century – The Farce de Maître Pathelin plays on vecies and lanternes.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “air bladder inside a ball”.^[2][4]
• Late 18th century – Vessie natatoire is recorded for the swim bladder.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The bladder, the organ in which urine collects before it leaves the body.^[9][10][11]
2. An animal's bladder taken out and dried, forming a bag; any air-filled membrane, as inside a ball.^[9][10][11]
3. Vessie natatoire: the swim bladder of a fish.^[4][11]
4. Prendre des vessies pour des lanternes: to be badly mistaken, to believe something absurd.^[10][11][12]

Related words

• vésical
• vésicatoire
• vessigon
• Latin vēsīca

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 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 341a
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse