écale

Forms

écale f (plural écales)^[1] Old French escale and eschale.^[2][3] Middle French escalles (1578).^[2] Berry dialect échale.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French escale, borrowed from Frankish *skala.^[2][3][5][6] The Frankish word is the same as Proto-Germanic *skalja, the source of écaille.^[2][7] Wiktionary gives the Proto-Germanic form as *skaljō.^[1] The form with /k/ comes from Normandy and Picardy and spread over French; forms with /ʃ/ such as eschale survive in some dialects.^[2][7] The kept /a/ is probably explained by a form *scalla.^[2][3]

Cognate with Old High German scala (“shell, cup”) and German Schale (“shell, eggshell, pea pod”).^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as escale in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket (1174–1176), meaning the valve of a shellfish.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “valve of a shell” has disappeared.^[3] About 1180 Marie de France used eschale for an eggshell, a sense taken up again by Furetière in 1690; here the word lost ground to coque, coquille and écaille.^[2][3]

The surviving sense, the green husk of a walnut, is first found in 1361 and again in 1578, and became established in the 17th century.^[2][3] Furetière in 1690 also records it for the pod of peas and beans, a sense now archaic beside cosse¹.^[2][3] The verb écaler was derived from it, first as esqualer in 1531, and the technical noun écalure in 1840.^[3]

Timeline

• 1174–1176 – Escale “valve of a shell” appears in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.^[2]
• c. 1180 – Marie de France uses eschale for an eggshell.^[2][3]
• 1361 – First record of the sense “walnut husk”.^[2][3]
• 1531 – The verb esqualer is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1690 – Furetière records the senses “eggshell”, “walnut husk” and “pod of peas”.^[2]
• 1694 – The Académie records the verb écaler.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The outer husk covering the shell of walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and similar nuts.^[2][8]
2. (dated) A pod of peas, beans or haricots.^[2][8][9]
3. (dated or dialect) An eggshell.^[9][4]
4. (Louisiana) A fish scale.^[1]

Word family

• écaler

Related words

• escalope
• écaille
• Frankish *skala

Usage notes

Some writers wished to keep écaille for fish and écale for plants.^[2] Littré also lists technical senses: fragments of sandstone used for paving, and a portion of silk held together by gum.^[4] He enters a second écale, another form of the nautical term escale, also used for the pit in which a mint worker stood to place blanks on the die.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 77a
7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse