écope

Forms

écope f (plural écopes)^[1] Old French escope; dialect variants escoupe and écoupe, with escope still in use.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Frankish *skōpa (“wooden shovel for bailing water”),^[4][2][5][6] a form reconstructed from Middle Dutch schoepe and Middle Low German schōpe, which have the same meaning.^[4][2][5] Related Germanic words are Dutch schop (“spade”), German Schippe and English scoop.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 13th century as escope, already meaning a scoop for bailing water out of a boat.^[4][2][3] The DMF has scoupes in the accounts of Mons in 1331, and an ordinance of 1415 speaks of the escoppe lent to the owner of a wine boat moored at the Grève in Paris.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the meaning of its etymon.^[2] By likeness of shape it was applied to a wooden cup or large spoon for skimming milk or taking the deposit off a clarified liquid (1858 according to the GLLF, 1864 according to the DHLF), to a mechanical device for pumping out shallow water (1870), and in the 20th century to the feeding part of a crusher.^[3][2] Littré also records a wooden tool for watering in gardening.^[7]

The verb écoper “to bail out with a scoop” is recorded in 1837;^[2] in slang it meant “to drink” and, still today, “to be hit, to be punished” (1867), and écoper de “to be sentenced to” (1880).^[2][5]

Timeline

• 13th century – First record, as escope.^[4][2][3]
• 1331 – The accounts of Mons record scoupes.^[8]
• mid-14th century – The spelling escoupe appears.^[3]
• 1369 – The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date the word from this year.^[10][11]
• 17th century – The forms écope and écoupe appear.^[3]
• 1837 – The verb écoper is recorded.^[2]
• 1858 – It names a large spoon for skimming a liquid.^[3]
• 1870 – It names a machine for draining water.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A bailer: a hollow wooden shovel with a handle, used to bail water out of a boat.^[11][4][3]
2. A large spoon or shovel for removing the deposit from the top of a clarified liquid.^[3]
3. A mechanical device for draining small areas of water or the foundations of a building.^[3]
4. (gardening, dated) A wooden tool used for watering.^[7]

Word family

• écoper
• écopage

Related words

• English scoop

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e 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
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. 17, 127a
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert