vampire French · revision 15733

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=1738, d'Argens, Lettres juives|origins=sh vampir}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /vɑ̃.piʁ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''vampire''' ''m'' (plural vampires)^(Wiktionary)

+ Also ''oupire'' (1751) and ''upire'' (1771).^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[bor|de|Vampir]] (recorded from 1732), itself from [[sh|vampir]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|20, 51b) The forms “oupire” and “upire” come from [[cs|upír]] or [[ru|упырь|tr=upyrʹ]].^(DHLF 1992)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) Rey says that all these words could go back to a Turkic “uber” “witch”.^(DHLF 1992) Bloch and Wartburg call the history of the word and its ideas complex, the word being found in many Tatar and Finnic languages.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ English “vampire” (about 1734) may have been taken from French, in which case the French word is a little older than its first record.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The marquis d'Argens's ''Lettres juives'' (1738) uses it for an imaginary being who leaves the grave at night to suck the blood of the living.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The vampires of Central and Eastern Europe were much discussed in the 18th century.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(TLFi) Figuratively, from 1756 (Mirabeau), a ''vampire'' is a person who grows rich by ruining others, a sense Voltaire used in 1770 and now dated.^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) From 1835 (Gautier) it was also a criminal who commits murders or desecrates graves, as in ''le vampire de Düsseldorf''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ Buffon applied the name to a blood-sucking bat of tropical America (1761–1763).^(TLFi)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)^(Petit Robert 2007) About 1915 ''vampire'' was used for a femme fatale, before the English clipping ''vamp''.^(DHLF 1992) The derivative ''vampirisme'' is as old as the noun (1738), and in psychiatry (1891) names a sexual perversion.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1732 – German ''Vampir'' is recorded.^(TLFi)

+ * 1738 – ''Vampire'' and ''vampirisme'' (d'Argens).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1746 – Dom Calmet's treatise on vampires.^(Grand Robert 2005)^(GLLF 1989)

+ * 1751 – The form ''oupire''.^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1756 – Figurative “a person who grows rich at others' expense” (Mirabeau).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * 1762 – First recorded by the Académie.^(TLFi)

+ * 1761–1763 – A blood-sucking bat (Buffon).^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ * 1835 – A murderer or grave robber (Gautier).^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+ * c. 1915 – A femme fatale.^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|vampire]], a dead person said to leave the grave at night to suck the [[m|en|blood]] of the living.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(dated, figurative)'' A person who grows rich at others' expense; a [[m|en|bloodsucker]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # ''(literary)'' A murderer who commits many crimes or desecrates graves.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+ # A [[m|en|vampire bat]] of South and Central America.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Larousse)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[vampirisme]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[en|vampire]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}