écheveau

Forms

écheveau m (plural écheveaux)^[1] Old French plural escheviauz, singular eschevel (early 14th century), Middle French escheveau (15th century).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][3] It is probably inherited from Old French eschevel,^[1][4] inherited from Latin scabellum (“small bench, footstool”),^[2][5][4][6] which would have named a reel shaped like an X-legged stool and then, by metonymy, the skein wound on it.^[2][3][5] Bloch and Wartburg think the step from reel to skein came from the reel's use as a measure of yarn.^[5] The evidence is that Old Occitan escavel meant both “reel” and “skein”, and that Provençal escabel means both “skein” and “stool”;^[2][3][5] likewise Old Occitan escanh (“bench, stool”) stands beside escanha (“reel, skein”) and Picard écagne means both “stool” and “skein”, all from Vulgar Latin *scamnium, a form of Latin scamnum (“bench, stool”).^[2][3][5] It is a doublet of escabeau.^[1]

Littré took the Old French and dialect forms with /k/ such as escaigne from the English word skein, which he thought Celtic.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in the plural, escheviauz, in the Philomena attributed to Chrétien de Troyes (about 1165), for skeins of yarn.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word names a length of thread or yarn folded in several turns and tied so that it does not tangle;^[3][2] it once also meant a bundle of horsehair used as the spring of some ballistic weapons.^[3] The singular eschevel is found in a manuscript of Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers in the early 14th century, and Villon writes escheveau in the 15th.^[2][3]

Since 1611, when Cotgrave records desmesler un escheveau “to get out of a tangled business”, it has also been used figuratively of a complicated affair;^[2][3][8] the GLLF finds the sense “muddled story” in Madame de Sévigné and “complicated matter” in 1842.^[9] The sense of a continuous flow of time has gone out of use, except perhaps in dévider l'écheveau.^[3] In the cotton trade a French metric skein had to be 1,000 metres long.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Escheviauz in the Philomena.^[2]
• Early 14th century – The singular eschevel is recorded.^[2]
• 15th century – Villon writes escheveau.^[2][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the figurative desmesler un escheveau.^[2]
• 1636 – Monet spells it écheveau.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A skein: a length of thread or yarn wound in loops and tied so that it does not tangle: un écheveau de laine bleue.^[10][2]
2. (figurative) A tangle, a complicated or confused matter: démêler l'écheveau “to unravel the matter”.^[10][8][9]

Word family

• échevette

Related words

• escabeau
• Latin scabellum

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e 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. 11, 259b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert