vitalité

Forms

vitalité f (plural vitalités)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin vītālitās (“vital principle, life”), derived from vītālis (“of life, vital”); compare vital.^[2][3][4][5] The Petit Robert gives an isolated record of 1537 instead of 1587.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cholières in 1587, meaning “the character of what is vital”; the record is isolated, and the word was taken up again in 1765 in a medical journal.^[2][7][5]

Semantic evolution

As a name for the properties of living things the word was a learned term of the 18th century and is now archaic; it was used in biology by Charles Bonnet before 1779.^[5][3] In 1845 it took the everyday sense of the quality of what is eminently alive (in Bescherelle),^[5][3][2] and in 1876, by analogy, it was applied to abstract things, for the capacity to grow.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1587 – An isolated first record in Cholières.^[2][7]
• 1765 – Taken up again in the Journal de médecine.^[2][3]
• 1777 – Recorded in the supplement to the Encyclopédie.^[2]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense “strength of life”.^[3][5]
• 1876 – Applied to abstract things, in the Larousse.^[3][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (biology) The set of properties by which life shows itself in an organism.^[6][4][3]
2. Remarkable health and activity, vigour, energy: plein de vitalité.^[6][8][9]
3. The capacity of something to develop and produce many results: la vitalité d'une langue.^[9][5]

Related words

• vital
• Latin vītālitās

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)