poison

Forms

poison f (oblique plural poisons)^[1]

• puison, poisun, puisun, poisoun, poyson, pusun, poizon^[1][2][3]

The continental texts write poison and puison,^[4][3] and the insular ones also poisun, puisun and pusun.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pōtiō (“a drink, draught”), in its accusative pōtiōnem.^[1][5][6][7] The Latin noun is derived from the supine of pōtō (“to drink”), a verb that did not survive in the Romance languages, where bibō replaced it.^[8]

Latin already used the word for a magic draught and a medicinal one, and in late Latin for a poisoned drink, a development Bloch and Wartburg compare with Ancient Greek φάρμακον (phármakon).^[6] Gamillscheg describes the word as a veiled term for "venom".^[9] The learned form of the same Latin word is French potion.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the French glosses of Rashi's commentaries, which the DEAF dates to the end of the 11th century.^[11][12] There the word, written in Hebrew letters, glosses words of the Talmud for potions, one of them medicinal.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th century the word covered any drink, a healing potion, a love potion or magic philtre and a poisoned draught.^[15][16] Wace's Brut of 1155 already has a puisun mixed with venom: E cil li ad puisun dunee De venim tute destempree "and he gave him a potion all mixed with venom".^[14] Benoît's Roman de Troie, about 1165, uses it for a remedy: Beivre li fist une poison / Que tot le traist a guarison "he made him drink a potion that brought him back to health".^[17][14] In Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès, Thessala brews such poisons as philtres.^[16]

The sense of a deadly substance, not only a drink, appears in 1342, and the figurative "something pernicious" in 1544.^[14] The word was feminine like its Latin source; the DHLF says the masculine took over in the 16th century, probably after venin,^[8] while Bloch and Wartburg date the end of the feminine to the early 17th century and note that many dialects keep it.^[6] Gamillscheg also explains the masculine by that older word for poison.^[9] The modern word is French poison.^[14]

Timeline

• 1085–1100 – in the French glosses of Rashi, for a drink or potion.^[11][13][14]
• 1100–1133 – poisun in the first Anglo-Norman text the AND cites.^[2]
• 1155 – puisun, a poisoned drink, in Wace's Brut.^[14][18]
• c. 1160 – mortal poison in the Roman d'Eneas.^[14][8]
• c. 1165 – a healing potion in Benoît's Roman de Troie.^[14]
• c. 1176 – potions and philtres in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès.^[16][19]
• 1342 – "a deadly substance" in Renart le Contrefait.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. a drink, draught.^[15][18][2]
2. a healing potion, medicine.^[16][2]
3. a magic potion, philtre.^[16][20]
4. a poisoned drink; poison.^[20][2][14]
5. poisoning; a harmful disease.^[2][21]

Anglo-Norman

The AND heads the word poisun, first cites it from the first third of the 12th century, and lists spellings from poison and poysoun to pusoune.^[2] Its senses run from a drink and a medicinal potion to poison, poisoning, and a disease or anything lethal.^[2] Middle English borrowed it as poisoun, the source of the English word poison.^[1][2]

Descendants

• Middle French poison (→ French poison)^[1]
• Dutch poisoen (borrowed)^[1]
• Middle English poysoun (borrowed; → English poison)^[1]

Usage notes

Tobler–Lommatzsch, Godefroy and the DÉCT head the word poison, the AND poisun.^{[4][22][16][2]} Wiktionary also lists poison as a spelling of poisson "fish", which has a separate source.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–), p. s.v. poisun
3. ^ a b FROLEX 3.0, lexique morphologique du français médiéval (IXe–XVe s.), Base de français médiéval, ENS de Lyon (from the BFM, the Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam and the DMF), github.com/sheiden/Medieval-French-Language-Toolkit
4. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1339
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9:255
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France, p. 536
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6699
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. poison
9. ^ a b Gamillscheg, Ernst (1966–1969), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der französischen Sprache, 2nd, fully revised ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 753
10. ^ Bos, Alphonse (1891), Glossaire de la langue d'oïl (XIe–XIVe siècles), Paris: Maisonneuve, p. 34
11. ^ a b 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. poison
12. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. RaschiD2
13. ^ a b Katan, Moshe (1988), Otzar La'azei Rashi: the Old French glosses of Rashi, Jerusalem; digital edition Sefaria, p. s.v. poison
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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
15. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1340
16. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire électronique de Chrétien de Troyes (DÉCT), LFA / Université d'Ottawa – ATILF, CNRS / Université de Lorraine (2014), p. s.v. poison
17. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
18. ^ a b 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. poison
19. ^ Möhren, Frankwalt, Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF): Complément bibliographique, electronic version (DEAFBiblEl), Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, alma.hadw-bw.de/deafbibl (texts by siglum, with their dates), p. CligesG
20. ^ a b Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 7:1342
21. ^ Van Daele, Hilaire, Petit dictionnaire de l'ancien français, Paris: Garnier, p. 362
22. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon, p. 6:258