échasse

Forms

échasse f (plural échasses)^[1] Old French eschace, also eschesse in the 13th century; the spelling échasse dates from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eschace, borrowed from Frankish *skakkja.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Frankish noun comes from a Germanic verb Proto-Germanic *skakaną “to run fast”,^[1][3][4] which also gave Old English scacan, the source of English shake, but left no descendants in German.^[2] Compare Old Occitan escassa “crutch” in Old Occitan.^[4] Littré derived it instead from Middle Dutch schaetse, which he calls Old Flemish, comparing Dutch schaats “stilt, skate”, and cited Walloon hèse and Rouchi écase.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as eschace in Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval (1181–1190), meaning a crutch or wooden leg.^[2][3] The GLLF and Littré cite it slightly earlier from the epic Aliscans, for a long stick made of ash or elder.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “crutch, wooden leg” lasted into the 15th century.^[3][2] In the 13th century, as eschesse, it came to mean a long pole with a foot-rest, for walking over difficult ground.^[3][2] From 1665 it was used figuratively in phrases such as monté sur des échasses “trying to seem greater than one is, stilted”; in 1690 Furetière recorded the phrase of someone who speaks bombastically.^[3][2] From 1718 the phrase also meant having long legs, and in 1861 échasse alone meant a long thin leg.^[3][2] In 1768 it was given to a long-legged marsh bird, the stilt.^[2][3] The derivative échassier meant “having a wooden leg” in the Middle Ages, and took its modern sense, a wading bird, in 1799.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1181–1190 – Eschace “crutch, wooden leg” in Chrétien de Troyes's Perceval.^[2]
• 13th century – Eschesse is used for a stilt.^[2][3]
• 16th century – The spelling échasse appears.^[3]
• 1665 – First figurative use, in Boileau.^[2][3]
• 1718 – The Académie records the phrase for having long legs.^[2]
• 1768 – It names a long-legged marsh bird.^[2][3]
• 1799 – Échassier takes its zoological sense.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stilt, one of a pair of long poles with a foot-rest, for walking above the ground or over marshy terrain.^[8][7][1]
2. Être monté sur des échasses: to have long legs;^[8][6] (figurative, dated) to put on airs, be stilted.^[8][6]
3. (popular) A long, thin leg.^[7][2]
4. (zoology) A long-legged migratory wader with black and white plumage (échasse blanche), a stilt.^[8][1]

Word family

• échassier

Related words

• English shake

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 75b
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert