Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the Vie de Saint Leger; another early use is in the early 12th-century Anglo-Norman Voyage de saint Brendan.
The term first emerged in a 10th-century Old French account of a saint's life, the Vie de Saint Leger; it also appears in an earlier 12th-century Anglo-Norman narrative, the Voyage de saint Brendan.