bombace

Forms

bombace m or f^[1][2]

• bonbace, bombés^[3]
• banbace, bambais, bambaz^[4][5]

Greimas also gives a form in -bance.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin bombax (“cotton”),^[6][7] which Du Cange records in Medieval Latin texts for cotton, the down of the cotton shrub.^[8] Etymonline takes the Latin noun for an altered and transferred use of bombyx (“silk”), from Ancient Greek βόμβυξ (bómbux, “silkworm, silk”), which in Medieval Greek also came to mean cotton.^[6]

Greimas instead derives the word from Italian bambagia (“cotton”), and Bos compares the same Italian word.^[1][9] Körting sets up Vulgar Latin *bambacium or *bombacium for the Italian and Old French nouns.^[5] The FEW notes that the Latin word is recorded in some glosses but never took root in France: the Old French form that the DEAF heads occurs only once, and French took the Arabic word that became French coton instead.^[10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Anglo-Norman: the AND first cites the word from about 1240, meaning cotton.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word named raw cotton and cotton cloth, and also the cotton used as wadding or padding.^[4][1][11] In Middle French the DMF has only a 15th-century example, from a translation of Bruno of Longoburgo, and the word did not survive.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1240 – the AND's first citation.^[3]
• 1298 – banbace in the French version of Marco Polo.^[1][4]
• 15th century – in a translation of Bruno of Longoburgo's surgery.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. cotton; cotton cloth.^[3][4][2]
2. cotton wadding, padding.^[1][11]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word bombace, with the spellings bonbace and bombés, and first cites it from about 1240 in the sense of cotton.^[3] English took the Old French word as bombace "raw cotton" in the 1550s; altered to bombast, it meant "cotton padding" from the 1570s.^[6]

Word family

• bombasin

Descendants

• Middle French bombace^[2]
• English bombast (borrowed, through bombace)^[6]

Usage notes

The AND, Godefroy and the DMF head the word bombace,^[3][2] the DEAF bambais and the FEW the Latin bambax.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Greimas, Algirdas Julien (1979), Dictionnaire de l'ancien français jusqu'au milieu du XIVe siècle, 2nd ed., Paris: Larousse (printing of 1988), p. s.v. bombace
2. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf, p. s.v. bombace
3. ^ a b c d e f Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. bombace
4. ^ a b c d e f Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de, p. s.v. bambais
5. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh, p. 1201
6. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. 1:695
9. ^ Bos, Alphonse (1891), Glossaire de la langue d'oïl (XIe–XIVe siècles), Paris: Maisonneuve, p. 52
10. ^ a b Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1:229
11. ^ a b Godefroy, Frédéric (1901), Lexique de l'ancien français, ed. J. Bonnard and A. Salmon, Paris / Leipzig: Welter, p. s.v. bombace