Etymograph

English

avalanche

Avalanche comes from Franco-Provençal avalançhe.

  1. Franco-Provençalmodernavalançhe
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentavalanche
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1834same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Franco-Provençalmodernavalançhe
  2. Frenchc. 1600–presentavalanche
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1834same form

Earliest quotation: 1834, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, London: Richard Bentley: “Yes, but she talked it away. She uses a…”

The story

From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (‘downhill’) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (‘landslide’) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansh lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (‘to slip, slide’).uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Every English word from Franco-Provençal avalançhe

Today it means

noun A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Franco-Provençal avalançhe / avalanche

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