émerillon

Forms

émerillon m (plural émerillons)^[1] Old French esmerillon; the spelling émerillon is recorded from 1636.^[2] The Académie's spelling émérillon was a misprint, according to Littré.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French esmerillon, formed from Old French esmeril + -on, a diminutive of the Old French name of a small falcon.^[4][5][1][2] Its source is generally given as Frankish *smiril, a reconstructed Frankish word for the same bird,^[4][5][6][7] supported by Old High German smiril^[4] and Old Norse smyrill,^[8] from Proto-Germanic *smirilaz.^[1] Rey and Bloch and Wartburg present the Frankish form as an assumption,^[5][6] and the Grand Robert calls its sense uncertain.^[9] The simple word was soon replaced by the diminutive, whose suffix stresses the bird's small size.^[8][6]

Cognate with Old Occitan esmerilhon, Italian smeriglio, Spanish esmerejón, Portuguese esmerilhão and German Schmerl.^[6][8][3] Littré's derivation from Latin merula (“blackbird”) with an inserted ⟨s⟩ is not followed by the modern dictionaries.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1165 as esmerillon in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, naming the bird.^[4][5] Chrétien de Troyes compares a fleeing lark to a bird before the esmerillon in Le Chevalier de la charrette.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the merlin, a small falcon once trained for hunting partridge, quail and small birds.^[5][2] Its bright, piercing eye gave the adjective émerillonné “lively” (about 1479).^[5][6]

At the start of the 16th century it was also the name of a light piece of artillery, in use until the 18th century.^[4][5][2] From 1680 it names a hook or ring riveted into a collar by a small pin so that it turns freely, a swivel;^[4][5] Littré explains that animal names easily pass to instruments.^[3] This technical sense gave the verb émerillonner in the 20th century.^[5]

The English word for the bird comes from the Anglo-Norman form of the same word, found from before 1382.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Esmerillon in the Roman de Troie.^[4][5]
• c. 1200 – The simple form esmeril is recorded.^[4]
• c. 1479 – The derivative émerillonné appears.^[5]
• 1506 – It names a light cannon.^[2]
• 1636 – Monet spells it émerillon.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet records the sense “swivel hook”.^[4][2]
• 1718 – S'émerillonner “to become cheerful” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A merlin, a small, fast-flying falcon of northern regions, once used in falconry.^[10][11][2]
2. A swivel: a hook or ring riveted by a small pin into a collar so that it can turn freely, as in émerillon d'affourche; in fishing, a swivel that stops the line from twisting.^[10][11]
3. (historical) A light, long piece of artillery, used from the 16th to the 18th century.^[2][11]

Word family

• émerillonné
• émerillonner

Related words

• s'émerillonner

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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 17, 157a
8. ^ a b c d Baldinger, Kurt; Möhren, Frankwalt; Städtler, Thomas, eds. (1971–2021), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'ancien français (DEAF), Heidelberg: Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften; DEAFél / DEAFpré, deaf-server.adw.uni-heidelberg.de
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)