parachute French · revision 15704

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=1784, Joseph de Montgolfier}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /pa.ʁa.ʃyt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''parachute''' ''m'' (plural parachutes)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|fr|para-|chute|t1=guarding against|t2=fall]],^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Wiktionary)^(Académie 9)^(FEW|7, 634b) formed on the model of [[parasol]] and [[parapluie]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Grand Robert 2005) Littré analyses it as “parer à chute”.^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Joseph de Montgolfier uses it in a letter of 24 March 1784 for a device to slow the fall of a person or object dropped from a balloon;^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) the Grand Robert and the GLLF date the word from 1777 in Bachaumont's ''Mémoires secrets'', a volume the TLFi dates 1785.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The aeronaut Blanchard tried the device in 1785, and the word was used by balloonists in the 19th century before aviation spread it in the 20th.^(DHLF 1992) Understood as anything that stops a fall, it also named a watchmaker's shock protector for the balance staff (1832) and a safety catch that stops a mine cage from falling down the shaft (1858).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Littré 1873)

+

+ ''Parachutiste'' (1903; a soldier from 1941, shortened to ''para'' in 1944), ''parachuter'' (1945; figuratively “to appoint someone suddenly to a distant post”, 1962) and ''parachutisme'' (1959) followed.^(DHLF 1992) ''Parachute doré'', a large payment to a departing executive, is calqued on English ''golden parachute''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1784 – A device to slow a fall from a balloon (Montgolfier).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1785 – Blanchard's experiments.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1832 – A shock protector in watchmaking.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1835 – First recorded by the Académie.^(TLFi)

+ * 1858 – A safety catch for a mine cage.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1903 – ''Parachutiste''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1945 – ''Parachuter''.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|parachute]], a canopy that slows the fall of a person or object through the air.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A braking parachute for an aircraft after landing.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''(mining)'' A safety catch that stops a cage from falling down a shaft.^(TLFi)^(Littré 1873)

+ # ''Parachute doré'': a [[m|en|golden parachute]].^(Wiktionary)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[parachuter]]

+ * [[parachutisme]]

+ * [[parachutiste]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[chute]]

+ * [[choir]]

+ * [[parasol]]

+ * [[parapluie]]

+ * [[en|parachute]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}