écluse

Forms

écluse f (plural écluses)^[1] Old French escluse; the spelling écluse dates from the 17th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French escluse, inherited from Late Latin exclūsa (“lock, sluice”), used elliptically for exclūsa aqua (“water separated (by a dam)”), and then for the dam itself.^[2][4][5] The Latin word is the feminine past participle of exclūdō (“to shut out, separate”),^[2][6] formed with ex- on claudō (“to shut”).^[7] The Late Latin word is found from the 6th century in writers of Gaul, Gregory of Tours and Fortunatus among them, and in the Visigothic laws;^[8][7] Bloch and Wartburg link it to the spread of the water mill.^[8][7]

It is only Gallo-Romance, with Old Occitan escluza; Spanish esclusa, German Schleuse and the English word sluice were borrowed from Gallo-Romance.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as escluse in the 11th-century glosses of Rashi, and about 1200 in Raimbert de Paris's Ogier le Danois, meaning a sluice that holds back water.^[2][4] In the 13th-century Chronique de Reims the Saracens firent clore les escluses “had the sluices closed”.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Écluse has kept its first sense, a work that holds back water or lets it out as needed.^[4] On rivers and canals it names the lock through which boats pass from one level to another.^[3][9] By likeness of function it was used in various technical fields, as écluse à air (19th century).^[4]

The figurative phrase lâcher or ouvrir les écluses meant “to weep abundantly” (1881) and “to urinate” (1898): in both, a long-held flood bursts out.^[4] The derived verb écluser (11th century) “to close with a sluice” is used in familiar French for “to drink” (1936, en écluser un).^[4]

Timeline

• 11th century – Escluse appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2][4]
• c. 1200 – Raimbert de Paris uses escluse in Ogier le Danois.^[2][6]
• c. 1470 – Éclusier is used for the lock-keeper.^[4]
• 1627 – Éclusée “the water a lock holds” is recorded.^[4]
• 1838 – Écluser is used for passing a boat through a lock.^[4]
• 1881 – Lâcher les écluses “to cry” is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sluice, a work of gates and sluices built to hold back or release water.^[9][2]
2. A canal or river lock, letting boats pass from one level to another: écluse simple, écluse double, écluse à sas.^[3][7]
3. Lâcher (or ouvrir) les écluses: (figurative, familiar) to burst into tears.^[4]

Word family

• éclusier
• écluser
• éclusée
• éclusage

Related words

• exclure
• Latin exclūdō
• English sluice

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 277b
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert