visqueux

Forms

visqueux (feminine visqueuse, masculine plural visqueux, feminine plural visqueuses)^[1] Old French viscous, feminine viscouse.^[1][2] Middle French also visceuse in the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin viscōsus (“smeared with birdlime, sticky”),^[3][4][5][6] a derivative of Latin viscum (“mistletoe, birdlime made from mistletoe”).^[3][4][7] The noun viscosité was borrowed in the same year, 1256, from Medieval Latin viscositas.^[5][4] The FEW files the word under this Latin noun.^[8] Wiktionary instead presents the French word as the continuation of the Old French form, itself borrowed from the Late Latin adjective.^[1]

Cognate with Occitan viscos, Spanish viscoso and Italian viscoso.^[2] The same Latin noun gave French gui¹ “mistletoe”.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1256 in Aldebrandin de Sienne's Régime du corps, in the phrase grosses humeurs et visqeuses, of thick bodily humours that flow with difficulty.^[3] The medical Simples médecines of the 13th century speaks likewise of visqueuse fleume “viscous phlegm”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the adjective described a thick liquid that flows slowly, and in the 13th century it was already applied to a person who is repellent through baseness.^[4] About 1375 it was used for “venomous”, a sense that has disappeared.^[4] From the end of the 14th century it described what is coated with a viscous liquid, usually with a pejorative value: Eustache Deschamps wrote of gros et vielz poissons visqueux “big old slimy fish”.^[3][4] At the same time Jean Le Fèvre used it of a soft but resistant flesh such as pork.^[3]

In the early 17th century Étienne Pasquier used it of malevolent, distrustful minds.^[3][4] Physics took up the word for a fluid of high viscosity, which the TLFi dates to Trévoux in 1771 and Rey to 1872.^[3][4] A new metaphor made it a pejorative synonym of gluant “sticky, oily” of manners and people: the Goncourts wrote of le geste caressant et comme visqueux in 1862.^[3][4] Sartre turned the adjective into a noun, le visqueux, in L'Être et le Néant (1943).^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1256 – Aldebrandin de Sienne writes of grosses humeurs et visqeuses.^[3][5]
• 13th century – It describes a person who is repugnant by baseness.^[4]
• c. 1375 – It is used in the sense “venomous”, later lost.^[4]
• Late 14th century – Eustache Deschamps applies it to slimy fish.^[3][7]
• Before 1615 – Étienne Pasquier uses it of malevolent, distrustful people.^[3][4]
• 1771 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the sense in physics.^[3]
• 1862 – The Goncourts use it figuratively of a fawning gesture.^[3][4]
• 1898 – The technical term viscose is formed on its stem.^[4]
• 1943 – Sartre uses le visqueux as a noun.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Thick and slow to flow; viscous, sticky: une huile visqueuse.^[9][3]
2. (pejorative) Covered with a sticky, slimy layer: la peau visqueuse d'une limace.^[9][3]
3. (physics) Having a high viscosity.^[9][3]
4. (figurative, literary) Repugnant, unctuous and fawning: un sourire visqueux.^[9][3][4]

Noun

1. Le visqueux: what is viscous, or what inspires repulsion.^[3]

Word family

• viscose

Related words

• viscosité
• gui¹
• gluant
• Latin viscum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 i j k l m n o p q r 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 524a
9. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert