vis

Forms

vis f (invariable)^[1] Old French viz, respelled vis from the end of the 11th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French viz, inherited from Latin vītis (“vine, vine stock, tendril of the vine”), which probably took the sense “screw” in Vulgar Latin.^[3][4][2][5] The sense “spiral staircase” is peculiar to Gallo-Romance;^[3][4] Medieval Latin vites “spiral stairs” is also found.^[3][4] The Old French form with final /s/ seems to continue a Latin noun that had become indeclinable, according to the TLFi, or the plural, which had driven out the singular before the first texts, according to Bloch and Wartburg.^[3][4] The Grand Robert and Meyer-Lübke give the adjective viteus (“of the vine”) as an alternative source.^[6][7]

Rey relates the Latin noun to vieō (“to bend, plait”), whose sense is found in words for willow and for pliant shoots in several Indo-European languages.^[2] Cognate with Old Occitan vitz, Italian vite and Walloon viss.^[8][4] English vise (early 14th century, first “a winch”) is from Anglo-Norman vice and Old French vis.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense is “spiral staircase” (viz, 1049);^[2][6] the TLFi's first record of this sense is about 1170, in the Livre des Rois.^[3] The sense “screw” appears at the end of the 11th century, as viz in Rashi's glosses.^[3][2][10]

Semantic evolution

The staircase sense was later expressed by escalier à vis (1600) and specialised in vis saint Gilles (1567) or vis de saint Gilles (1845), a ramped staircase named after the one at the priory of Saint-Gilles in the Gard.^[2][3] The word also named the twisted column of a four-poster bed (1603) and the spiral line of a twisted column (1694), and meant “pulley” (1381), a sense now lost; the Latin senses “vine stock” and “vine shoot” survived only in dialects.^[2]

The sense “threaded rod turned into wood or metal” became the commonest.^[2] In geometry and mechanics vis is the simple machine that turns circular into straight motion, as in vis d'Archimède and vis sans fin (both in Furetière, 1690).^[2][3] Vis platinée (1900) still names the contact breaker points of an engine's ignition, which are neither screws nor platinum.^[2] The figurative serrer la vis and donner un tour de vis were slang for “to strangle” (1872) before passing into familiar use for “to treat with severity” (1888).^[2]

Timeline

• 1049 – Viz “spiral staircase” is first recorded.^[2][6]
• Late 11th century – Viz “screw” appears in Rashi's glosses.^[3][10]
• Second half of the 13th century – Villard de Honnecourt has vis “screw”.^[3]
• Early 14th century – English borrows it as vise.^[9]
• 1567 – Vis saint Gilles is recorded.^[2][10]
• 1600 – Olivier de Serres writes escalier à vis.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records vis sans fin and vis d'Archimède.^[3][2]
• 1762 – The verb visser “to fasten with screws” is recorded.^[2][4]
• 1888 – Serrer la vis “to treat severely” is in familiar use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A screw: a rod of metal or wood with a raised spiral thread, driven into wood or metal or into a nut by turning it: vis à bois, pas de vis.^[11][3][12]
2. Vis sans fin: an endless screw, a worm, and vis d'Archimède, an Archimedean screw.^[3][2]
3. A spiral staircase turning round a central newel, now usually escalier à vis.^[11][3]
4. (figurative, familiar) Serrer la vis à quelqu'un: to treat someone more strictly.^[12][2]

Word family

• visser
• dévisser
• visserie
• vissage

Related words

• vrille
• Latin vītis
• English vise

Usage notes

The final s is pronounced, as it is in every Gallo-Romance dialect, where the word is very often masculine.^[3][4] The Old French vis “face”, which survives in vis-à-vis, has a separate source, Latin vīsus.^[2][4][13]

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 o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 558b
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 537b