squelette French · revision 15656

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1552, scelette (Pontus de Tyard)|origins=grc σκέλλω}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /skə.lɛt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''squelette''' ''m'' (plural squelettes)^(Wiktionary)

+ ''Scelette'' (1552), ''squelete'' (before 1585), Greek-looking ''sceletos'', ''skeletos'' in Paré and Montaigne, and ''squelette'' from before 1660.^(DHLF 1992) Often feminine in the 17th century.^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|la|sceletus]],^(TLFi)^(Wiktionary) from [[grc|σκελετός|tr=skeletós|t=dried up; a dried body, mummy]];^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|12, 3a) Rey and Bloch and Wartburg take it straight from Greek.^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The Greek adjective comes from [[m|grc|σκέλλω|tr=skéllō|t=to dry up]],^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Littré 1873) a verb of obscure origin that has been compared with Germanic words for “dry, thin” such as [[en|shallow]].^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Pontus de Tyard used ''scelette'' in 1552 for the bony frame of a vertebrate after death.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) Ambroise Paré (1562) explains that the Greeks call the whole structure of the bones ''sceletos'', “dry anatomy”.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Skeletons mounted for teaching medicine are mentioned by Furetière (1690).^(TLFi) Bossuet made the skeleton the figure of Death (1662),^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989) and by exaggeration it was said of a very thin person (1669), as Ronsard had already written “un schelette je semble”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ At the end of the 17th century it came to mean any framework: the hull of a ship (1690), later a building or a landscape.^(DHLF 1992)^(TLFi) Of a work of the mind it means a bare outline (Rollin, 1726–1728); Voltaire wrote that a dictionary without quotations is a skeleton.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989) The adjective ''squelettique'' dates from 1834.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1552 – ''Scelette'' (Pontus de Tyard).^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1562 – Paré's ''sceletos''.^(TLFi)

+ * 1586 – Ronsard: “un schelette je semble”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1662 – Death personified (Bossuet).^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1669 – A very thin person.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1690 – The frame of a ship (Furetière).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1760 – Voltaire's “un dictionnaire sans citations est un squelette”.^(TLFi)

+ * 1834 – ''Squelettique''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|skeleton]], the bony frame of a vertebrate.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(figurative)'' A very thin person.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A framework or structure: ''le squelette d'un navire''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(TLFi)

+ # The bare outline of a work.^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[squelettique]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|skeleton]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}