étuve

Forms

étuve f (plural étuves)^[1] Old French estuve.^[2][3] The spelling étuve is recorded in 1636 (Monet).^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French estuve, inherited from Vulgar Latin *extupa (“room for steam baths”) (compare Late Latin stupa in the same sense in the Kassel glosses, 8th–9th century).^[2][5][6] The noun is taken to be a derivative of a verb *extupō, formed with ex- on *tupō, from Ancient Greek τύφω (túphō, “to smoke, fill with smoke”).^[2][5][3][7] The Greek verb probably entered the dialects of southern Gaul through Marseille before the Roman conquest, since its /pʰ/ was rendered as /p/, at a time when it was still an aspirated p;^[2][5][3] the noun would then have spread from the south to northern Gaul.^[2][5][3] Occitan still has tuba (“to smoke”).^[5][3]

Italian stufa (“stove”) comes from the same Greek verb through a later Vulgar Latin form, in which /pʰ/ had already become /f/.^[5][3] German Stube is probably borrowed from this Vulgar Latin noun.^[3] Littré, and Wiktionary as an alternative, instead derive the word from Germanic, comparing Old High German stupa and Old Norse stofa.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found as estuve in the 11th-century Judeo-French glosses of Rashi, and in 1176 in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès, meaning a room for steam baths.^[2][5] The Roman de la Rose has Puis revont entr'eus as estuves, Et se baignent ensemble es cuves “then they go together to the bath-houses and bathe together in the tubs”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Étuve first named a room for steam baths, a kind of hammam, and in the plural a bath-house.^[5][2] From the 16th century it was used for a closed room heated to make people sweat, and since 1690 for any very hot place.^[5][4]

From 1680, probably after the verb étuver, it also named an apparatus kept at a high temperature to dry wood or fruit, to soften a material (étuve à bordages in the navy, 1773) or to disinfect.^[5][2] In modern French it also names the incubator of microbiology laboratories.^[9]

The verb étuver (about 1181–1190) first meant “to bathe in hot water”; it later came to mean “to put in a drying oven” (1384) and, in cooking, “to stew” (1530).^[5]

Timeline

• 11th century – Estuve appears in Rashi's glosses.^[2][5]
• 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for a steam-bath room in Cligès.^[2]
• c. 1260 – Estuveur, the keeper of a bath-house, is recorded.^[5][3]
• c. 1560 – Ambroise Paré uses it for a sweating room.^[4]
• 1636 – Monet records the spelling étuve.^[4]
• 1680 – Richelet records it for a drying chamber, here for hats.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “very hot place”.^[4][5]
• 1773 – Étuve à bordages is used in shipbuilding.^[5][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A bath-house, public baths (usually in the plural).^[2][9]
2. A closed room heated to make people sweat, a sauna or steam room: étuve sèche, étuve humide.^[10][8]
3. (figurative) A very hot, stuffy place: ce bureau est une étuve en août.^[10][9]
4. A drying or sterilization chamber or oven, in which a set temperature is kept.^[10][2]
5. (microbiology) An incubator for growing cultures at a constant temperature.^[9]

Word family

• étuver
• étuvée
• étuveur
• étuvage

Related words

• estouffade
• Italian stufa
• German Stube

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 m 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 13/2, 457a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert