Aux origines de la notion de polysémie en français : la formation du concept

For at least 80 years, the name of Michel Bréal has been both associated with the
development of the field of semantics within French linguistics and with the
invention of the term and concept of polysémie (polysemy) in the 1880s. The present
contribution deals with the origin of the concept of polysemy, when Bréal used
it for the first time. Although Bréal contributed to define polysemy thoroughly,
neither the idea, nor the term were new. In the first place, the term was coined
by Joseph Halévy ; secondly, dictionary makers and 19th century linguists often
conceived of lexical meaning in terms of polysemy.