visibilité

Forms

visibilité f (plural visibilités)^[1] Old French visibleté (13th century), remade as visibilité in the late 15th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin vīsibilitās (“the quality of a visible thing”), from vīsibilis (“visible”).^[2][3][1][4] The earlier form visibleté was formed from visible and was remade on the Latin model.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is visibleté in a 13th-century manuscript of a poem by Berengier on the Antichrist, meaning the quality of what can be perceived by sight.^[2] The GLLF dates visibleté to the late 12th century (Herman de Valenciennes) and the Grand Robert to 1380.^[6][5] Visibilité itself is found after 1481 in Jean Robertet; the Robert dictionaries and the GLLF date it 1487.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

In theology, about 1590, it came to mean the quality that makes a thing manifest, especially of the Church;^[3][2] Littré quotes Agrippa d'Aubigné on l'argument de la visibilité.^[4]

From the 19th century it was used for the possibility of seeing the surroundings more or less well from a given point (1865 in the TLFi, 1872 in the DHLF and GLLF),^[2][3][6] and in meteorology for the transparency of the air that allows one to see more or less far (1928).^[2][3] The notion is central in aviation, where pilotage sans visibilité (instrument flying) is recorded in 1933.^[2][3] In English, visibility was borrowed from the same Late Latin word about 1400.^[7]

Timeline

• 13th century – Visibleté appears in Berengier's poem.^[2]
• After 1481 – Jean Robertet uses the form visibilité.^[2]
• 1599 – Marnix de Sainte-Aldegonde uses it for the quality that makes a thing manifest.^[2]
• 1865 – Limite de visibilité is recorded in the reports of the Académie des sciences.^[2]
• 1928 – First record of the meteorological sense.^[2][3]
• 1933 – Pilotage sans visibilité is recorded by Larousse.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of what can be perceived by sight: la visibilité d'un signal.^[8][9][10]
2. (physics) The property of electromagnetic radiation that affects the human retina.^[8]
3. (meteorology) The state of the atmosphere that allows one to see more or less far, visibility: bonne, mauvaise visibilité.^[8][10][9]
4. The possibility of seeing the surroundings from a given point: un virage sans visibilité.^[8][9]
5. (dated) The quality that makes a thing manifest.^[4][3]

Related words

• visible
• invisibilité
• Latin vīsibilis
• English visibility

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)