ébauche

Forms

ébauche f (plural ébauches)^[1] Early modern French esbauche.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from French ébaucher.^[2][3][4] The verb is first found in Picardy as Middle French esbosquier (1369), then as esbochier (1380) and esbaucher (1549).^[2][5] The TLFi, Rey and Bloch and Wartburg explain it as a derivative with the prefix es- of Old French balc, bauch “beam” (modern bau), which is Frankish *balk;^[2][5][6][7] the forms in ⟨o⟩ show that it was crossed early with esbochier “to prune vines”, a derivative of bois, from Frankish *bosk.^[2][5] Wiktionary instead takes esbosquier as the base, formed on bosc “wood”, and sees the later form as altered under the influence of Middle French bauche (“beam”).^[1]

The verb first meant to rough-hew beams, and Bloch and Wartburg note that the same sense lies behind débaucher, from which embaucher was formed.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, esbauche in the 1619 inventory of the Paris painter G. Pitan (“unze petits cuivres, dont troys d'esbauches”, eleven small coppers, three of them sketches), means the first form of a work of art.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg, the Petit Robert and the GLLF date the word from 1643 instead, in Rotrou, where it is used figuratively of a shapeless, crude production.^[6][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The noun followed the same development as the verb, which had spread from rough-hewing wood to giving the first shape to any work.^[5][2] In painting and sculpture it named the preparatory state of a work in which only the main parts are laid out, and figuratively the first attempts at or the first development of anything;^[10][9] the GLLF dates the sense “first draft of an artistic or literary work” from Molière (1665) and the figurative sense from Massillon (1701).^[9]

From the 19th century it also became a technical word: the Académie recorded it in 1838 for the roughed-out movement of a watch, and Larousse in 1870 for an object given its first shape.^[9][10] In modern French it also denotes a gesture or movement begun and not completed (l’ébauche d’un salut), and in biology the first stage of an organ in the embryo.^[8][2][11]

Timeline

• 1369 – The verb is first recorded in Picardy as esbosquier “to rough-hew beams”.^[2][5]
• 1549 – The spelling esbaucher appears.^[2][5]
• 1619 – Esbauche names the first form of a work of art in a painter's inventory.^[2][3]
• 1643 – Rotrou uses it of a shapeless, crude production.^[6][9]
• 1665 – Molière uses it for the first draft of a work.^[9]
• 1694 – The Académie's dictionary includes it.^[2]
• 1838 – The Académie records it in watchmaking.^[9]
• 1932 – The derivative ébauchon is recorded.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The first, still unfinished form of a work of art or writing, a sketch or rough draft: l’ébauche d’une symphonie.^[8][11][12]
2. (figurative) The beginning of something that is left incomplete, such as a gesture or movement: l’ébauche d’un geste.^[8][11]
3. (technical) A piece given its first shape and not yet finished, and in watchmaking the set of unassembled parts of a movement.^[4][10]
4. (biology) The first stage in the development of an organ in the embryo.^[11][13]

Word family

• ébauchon

Related words

• ébaucher
• ébauchoir
• bau
• débaucher
• embaucher
• bois

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 36b
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org