écharde

Forms

écharde f (plural échardes)^[1] Old French escherde (about 1165), the western form, used until the 14th century,^[2][3] and escharde (about 1223); Middle French also had eschardre (1388).^[2][3] Rashi's glosses have the isolated form esjarde.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Frankish *skarda (“splinter (of wood)”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Frankish word is linked with German Scharte (“notch, gap”),^[2][3][4] and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *skardō, the source of English shard.^[1] Rey reports P. Guiraud's suggestion of a crossing with a form Vulgar Latin *excarpitō, seen in Old French escart (“breach”) and escarder (“to chip”).^[3][7]

Littré derived it instead from Latin carduus (“thistle”) with the prefix ex-, making the first sense “thistle prickle”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first sense is “scale” of a fish or snake: the form esjarde in Rashi's glosses (before 1105) and escherde in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie (about 1165).^[2][3][9] Geoffroi de Paris warns against le poisson qui a dure escharde.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, a small sharp fragment that gets into the skin by accident, is found once in a continuation of Perceval (first half of the 13th century) and again only in 1530;^[2][3] the GLLF dates it to Paré, about 1560.^[9] The Roman de la Rose already has wood eschardeus, full of splinters.^[8] The old sense “fish scale” was the commoner one in the Middle Ages and is still in use in the dialects of western France.^[4]

Figuratively it is a foreign and painful element, as in Sartre's image of a man in the world comme l'écharde dans la chair.^[2] Littré also records it as a popular name of the stickleback.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1105 – Rashi's glosses have esjarde “fish scale”.^[2][9]
• c. 1165 – Escherde in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[2][3]
• c. 1223 – Escharde in Gautier de Coinci's Miracles de Nostre-Dame.^[2][3]
• first half of the 13th century – A continuation of Perceval uses it of a splinter of wood.^[2]
• 1388 – The form eschardre in the Glossary of Conches.^[2][3]
• 1530 – The sense “splinter” is found again.^[2][3]
• c. 1560 – Paré uses it in the modern sense.^[9][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A splinter: a small, thin, pointed piece of wood, metal or a thorn that gets into the skin by accident: Il s'est planté une écharde dans le pouce.^[2][5][9]
2. (figurative) A foreign, painful element, a thorn in the flesh.^[2]
3. (dated) A popular name of the stickleback.^[8]

Related words

• English shard

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 n o p 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 96b
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse