voyage

Pronunciation

• IPA: /vwa.jaʒ/^[1]
• IPA (Louisiana): [(v)wɒ.jaʒ]^[1]
• IPA (Louisiana): [vo.jaʒ]^[1]

Forms

voyage m (plural voyages)^[1] Old French veiage (1080), veage, voiage (12th century), viage, voyage from 1480.^[2][3][4] In the 17th century some pronounced it veage, which Vaugelas condemned.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French veiage, inherited from Latin viāticum (“provisions or money for a journey, (late) journey”), the neuter of viāticus (“of a journey”), from via (“road, way”).^{[6][2][7][1][8]} In the Latin of Gaul it came to mean the road to be travelled, Littré finds the sense “journey” already in Venantius Fortunatus.^[7][4][5] The learned borrowing of the same word is viatique.^[2][1]

Bloch and Wartburg note that the word is purely Gallo-Romance: Italian viaggio and Spanish viaje were borrowed from Old Occitan viatge.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) Ganelon est montet, entret en sun veiage: he sets out on his way.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French it was used above all of a pilgrimage (about 1138), a crusade (about 1190) or a military expedition.^[6][2][7] Journeys in the modern sense being rare in the Middle Ages, the general sense of travelling to a distant place appears only in the 15th century (viage, 1421, voyage, 1480); en voyage is in Christine de Pisan (1400) and bon voyage! in 1518.^[7][2][6][9]

It also meant a load carried in one trip (1445), still current in Quebec (un voyage de bois); figuratively, life (about 1470) and death, le grand voyage, voyage sans retour (mid-15th century); and an account of a journey (1512).^[6][2] Les gens du voyage are travelling showpeople (1864), and in 1966 voyage rendered English trip for a drug experience.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Veiage “way”, Chanson de Roland.^[6]
• c. 1138 – A pilgrimage, Gaimar.^[2][4]
• c. 1190 – A crusade.^[2]
• 1400 – En voyage, Christine de Pisan.^[6]
• 1445 – A load.^[6]
• 1480 – The form voyage; a journey in the modern sense.^[2]
• 1518 – Bon voyage!^[6][9]
• 1864 – Gens du voyage.^[2]
• 1966 – A drug trip.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A journey, trip: faire un voyage, voyage d'affaires, voyage de noces, bon voyage!.^[10][1]
2. travel, travelling: aimer les voyages, agence de voyages.^[1]
3. A single trip made to carry something: faire plusieurs voyages, (Quebec, Louisiana) a load: un voyage de bois.^[2][1]
4. Le grand voyage: death.^[2]
5. Les gens du voyage: travellers, travelling people.^[2][1]
6. (slang) A drug trip.^[2]

Word family

• voyager
• voyageur
• voyagiste

Related words

• voie
• viatique
• Latin viāticum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 381a
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert