échauffer

Forms

échauffer^[1] Old French eschalfer (late 11th century), eschaufer (about 1175) and eschauffer;^[2][3][4] échauffer from the 17th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eschalfer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *excalefō (“to heat”), an alteration of imperial Latin excalfaciō (“to heat, warm”).^[2][3][5][6] The Latin verb is formed from intensive ex-, caleō (“to be warm”) and faciō (“to make”).^[3][7][4] The modern form was influenced by chauffer.^[3][5]

Cognate with Picard écaufer, Old Occitan escalfar and Spanish escalfar.^[8][5] It is related to échauder.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as eschalfer in Rashi's French glosses (late 11th century), meaning to heat or inflame, of the eye.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to make warm” is recorded in the reflexive in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134), si se vunt eschalfant “and so they grow warm”.^[2][3] By a metaphor from the medical sense it came to mean “to give animation or force (to the mind)”: Chrétien de Troyes has d'ire eschaufé “heated with anger” about 1175.^[2][3] This use is now formal, more common in the reflexive (13th century, s'échauffer en parlant) or in échauffer la bile and échauffer le sang.^[3]

S'échauffer in the sense “to warm up the muscles with exercise” is recorded as early as 1423.^[3] Littré also notes a popular use for “to constipate” and a hunting term, échauffer les faisans, to feed pheasants heating food so that the young hens lay.^[8]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Eschalfer “to inflame (the eye)” appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• 1121–1134 – Philippe de Thaon uses the reflexive for “to grow warm”.^[2]
• c. 1175 – Chrétien de Troyes's d'ire eschaufé shows the figurative sense.^[2][3]
• 1423 – S'échauffer is used for warming the body with exercise.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To heat gradually, to make warm, especially something that should stay cool: le frottement échauffe l'essieu.^[9][10][2]
2. (figurative) To excite or inflame minds and feelings;^[9][2] échauffer la bile or les oreilles, to annoy.^[9][2]
3. (dated, medicine) To heat or irritate the body or the blood.^[9][1][3]
4. S'échauffer: (sports) to warm up before exertion, also (dated) to get warm.^[9][1]

Word family

• échauffement
• réchauffer
• réchaud
• réchauffement

Related words

• échauder
• chaud
• chaleur
• chauffer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 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 c 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, 265b
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)