échauder

Forms

échauder^[1] Old French eschalder and eschauder.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eschalder, later eschauder, inherited from Late Latin excaldō (“to bathe in hot water, scald”).^[2][3][5][6] The Latin verb is formed from the intensive ex- and caldō (“to heat”), from caldus, the contracted form of calidus (“hot”).^[3][7][1]

Cognate with Occitan escaudar, Italian scaldare and Spanish escaldar.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Eschalder “to scald, pass through hot water” appears among Rashi's French glosses at the end of the 11th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The French verb kept the Late Latin sense and was used above all in cooking and butchery.^[3] The sense “to burn someone with a hot liquid” is now dated or regional, but the figurative se faire échauder, être échaudé “to suffer a loss or disappointment” is in general use.^[3][9] A 13th-century line of the Roman de Renart already says that one who has been scalded must fear water, an early form of the proverb chat échaudé craint l'eau froide.^[8][3] In farming, from 1723, the verb is used of heat or sun that shrivels grain.^[3]

The past participle became a noun for a small cake made of scalded dough in 1260.^[2][3]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Eschalder in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• c. 1160 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses eschauder.^[4][8]
• late 12th century – It appears in Fierabras.^[2]
• 1260 – Eschaudé names a small cake in Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers.^[2][3]
• 1723 – Used of heat that shrivels grain.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To rinse or wash with hot water.^[9][8]
2. To plunge into boiling water, as a pig or a fowl to remove its hair or feathers, also (cooking) to blanch vegetables or fruit for peeling.^[9][2]
3. (dated or regional) To scald, burn with a hot liquid.^[9][3][1]
4. (figurative) Se faire échauder, être échaudé: to be burned by an experience, suffer a loss or disappointment.^[9][3][8]
5. (agriculture) Of heat or the sun, to shrivel grain.^[3]

Word family

• échaudé
• échaudoir

Related words

• chaud
• Late Latin excaldō

Usage notes

The proverb chat échaudé craint l'eau froide means that one fears even the appearance of a harm one has already suffered.^[4][9][3] A separate verb échauder “to whitewash, coat with limewash”, recorded in 1783, is formed from the prefix é- and chauder, a derivative of chaux.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 263b
7. ^ a b 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 f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert