The ( German for French Etymological Dictionary) or FEW is the principal

etymological Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

dictionary of the

Gallo-Romance languages The Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages includes in the narrowest sense the ''langues d'oïl'' and Franco-Provençal. However, other definitions are far broader and variously encompass the Occitan or Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic o ...

(such as French). It was the brainchild of the

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

Walther von Wartburg.

History

The first edition of the FEW, written in German, was started in 1922, with the objective of tracing the origin, history and change of all words in the French lexicon, including Gallo-Romance languages:

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

, Arpitan / Francoprovençal and Walloon. Since 1952, the Swiss National Science Foundation has supported this ambitious project, with the help of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) since 1983. The first edition of the FEW was finished in 2002.

Structure

The FEW comprises 25 volumes, 160 fascicles, and more than pages. * Volumes 1–14: Latin, Greek, and some pre-Roman onomatopoeic etymology. * Volumes 15–17: Germanic etymology. * Volume 18:

anglicism An anglicism is a word or construction borrowed from English by another language. Due to the global dominance of English in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in other languages. Technology-related English ...

s. * Volume 19:

Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

ia * Volume 20:

loanword A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...

s from other languages ( Breton,

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, and so on). * Volumes 21–23: Material of unknown or uncertain origin, loanwords from other

Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

s, as well as corrections and new research. * Volumes 24 and 25: New revisions of the letter "A". There is a much-abridged version, the , published by the

Presses universitaires de France Presses universitaires de France (PUF; ), founded in 1921 by Paul Angoulvent (1899–1976), is a French publishing house. Recent company history The financial and legal structure of the Presses Universitaires de France was completely restruc ...

.Oscar Bloch, ed. ''Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française'', 2nd edn. Paris: PUF, 1950 (1st edn. 1932).

References

External links

Online scan

Presentation about the FEW at atilf.fr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Franzosisches Etymologisches Worterbuch Etymological dictionaries French dictionaries