visualiser

Forms

visualiser^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English visualize, first recorded in French in 1887 in psychology.^[2][3][1][4] The English verb is derived from visual, transitive from 1817 and intransitive from 1871;^[2][3][5] the Grand Robert traces the English adjective to the same source as French visuel, Medieval Latin visualis,^[4] while the GLLF calls it a borrowing of the French word.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1887, in Binet and Féré's Le Magnétisme animal, in the psychological phrase visualiser une couleur: to see on a white surface the complementary colour of a colour first imagined with the eyes shut.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

After its use in psychology, the verb was applied in cinema (1919) to putting an idea or subject into images, a use the Petit Robert notes is sometimes criticized.^[3][2][7] By 1940 it had the general sense “to make visible a phenomenon that is not”, as with a graph of production figures, and around 1970 it entered computing for displaying the results of data processing on a screen.^[3][2] The noun visualisation (1887), borrowed from English or formed from the verb, followed a parallel course.^[3]

Timeline

• 1817 – The English verb visualize is recorded.^[2][5]
• 1887 – Binet and Féré use visualiser une couleur in psychology.^[2][3]
• 1919 – Used in cinema for putting a subject into images.^[2][6]
• 1940 – Sartre uses it for making visible a phenomenon that is not.^[2]
• 1970 – First record in computing, of data shown on a screen.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (technical) To make visible something that is not naturally visible, such as an airflow or figures shown on a graph.^[7][2]
2. (computing) To display the results of data processing on a screen.^[7][2]
3. (cinema) To put an idea or subject into images.^[7][2]
4. To visualize, form a mental picture of.^[1]

Word family

• visualisation

Related words

• visuel
• English visualize

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 m 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert