Diachronie et technolectes

When linguists affirm, that languages evolve in time, most of them mean standard aspects of history of language or literature. However evolution concerns all variants of natural languages, therefore, also dialects, sociolects and technolects. These last, otherwise called special languages, have their own history, in general strongly realted with the history of discipline, which they express. Amongst a wide range of special language, a special status is owned by the medical language, one of the oldest and one of the richest. Analysis of medical vocabulary supplies many examples of diachronic terminological differences. Their causes are various, firstly, they are a result of progress of medicine as science, although can also result from strict semantic changes, such as narrowing or an expansion of meaning, as well as eufemisation. This article researches these changes taking into account two periods of development of French medical terminology, the 17th and the 21st century.