éteule

Forms

éteule f (plural éteules)^[1] Old French estoble, estuble, stuble and the Picard esteule; regional étoule, étouble.^[2][3][4] Littré also gives esteuble.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French esteule, probably a Picard variant of estoble or estuble,^[2][3][6] inherited from Latin stupula (“stalk, straw”), a variant of classical stipula (“stalk of grain, straw”) found in Varro and in later Latin.^[2][3][4] The GLLF derives the classical word from stīpō (“to press together”);^[7] Rey relates it to Indo-European words meaning “stiff, compact”.^[3] Littré derived the forms with ⟨o⟩ or ⟨ou⟩ from Old High German stupfila instead.^[5]

Cognate with Old Occitan estobla and Italian stoppia;^[3][6][5] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word still prevails in the Gallo-Romance dialects, and compare German Stoppel.^[6] It is a doublet of stipule.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form estoble is found in the glosses of Rashi at the end of the 11th century, and esteule in Jean Bodel's Congés in 1202, for the stalks of grain left in the field after harvest.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the technical sense of its Latin source, the stubble left standing after the harvest.^[3] By extension it names a harvested field covered with stubble.^[3][2][7] In farming usage two éteules blanches in a row are two cereal crops grown one after the other in the same field.^[5] Couleur d'éteule is a golden blond.^[2]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Estoble in Rashi's glosses.^[2][7]
• c. 1120 – Estuble and stuble in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][3][6]
• 1202 – Esteule in Jean Bodel's Congés.^[2][3]
• 1636 – Monet's dictionary has the spelling éteule.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (agriculture) stubble, the stalks left standing in a field after the harvest.^[8][2][5]
2. By extension, a stubble field.^[2][7]
3. Couleur d'éteule, d'éteule: golden blond.^[2]

Related words

• stipule
• chaume
• Latin stipula

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert