viatique

Forms

viatique m (plural viatiques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin viāticum (“provisions or money for a journey”), the neuter of the adjective viāticus (“of a journey”) used as a noun, which is from via (“way, road”).^[2][3][4] The same Latin word was inherited as voyage, so the two French words are doublets.^[3][1][5] The religious sense was taken, according to Bloch and Wartburg, from Medieval Latin, where it is found as early as the Carolingian period as an extension of the old sense of money for the journey.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record is in Eustache Deschamps, at the end of the 14th or the start of the 15th century, in a sense that the TLFi glosses as “way of behaving, doings” and Rey as “road to travel”: C'est un perilleux viatique “it is a perilous course”.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

In 1420 it meant provisions, and in 1690 Furetière recorded the money and provisions given to a member of a religious order for a journey; this sense later spread to any traveller.^[2][3][6] About the middle of the 16th century it took over the sense of Church Latin, the Eucharist given to someone in danger of death, as help for the passage into the next life;^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date this sense to 1664 and the GLLF finds it in Mme de Sévigné in that year.^[4][7] From 1834, when Sainte-Beuve used it in Volupté, it has also meant, in literary use, whatever gives support or help.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – First record in Eustache Deschamps.^[2][3]
• 1420 – Used for provisions in a Breton document.^[2]
• 16th century – Used for the last communion given to the dying.^[2][6]
• 1664 – Mme de Sévigné uses it in the religious sense.^[7]
• 1690 – Furetière records the money given to a travelling religious.^[2]
• 1834 – Sainte-Beuve uses it figuratively for support or help.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) Money and provisions given to someone, originally a member of a religious order, for a journey.^[2][6]
2. (Christianity) The viaticum, the communion taken to a dying person: recevoir le viatique.^[6][1]
3. (figurative, literary) Something that gives indispensable support or help.^[6][2]

Related words

• voyage
• voie
• Latin viāticum

Usage notes

Littré notes that viatique is often wrongly confused with extrême-onction.^[5]

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 k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse