évier

Forms

évier m (plural éviers)^[1] Old French euwier (1247); the spelling évier is recorded by Furetière in 1690.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French euwier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *aquārium, the neuter of the adjective Latin aquārius (“of water, for water”) used as a noun.^[4][3][5] The adjective was often joined to words for vessels and conduits, such as canālis (“channel”), and Bloch and Wartburg note that it is used of a drain in glosses.^[4][5] It is formed on aqua (“water”), and its sound development ran parallel to that of eau, whose Old French form ewe matches the first form of the noun.^[3][5] The word is a doublet of aquarium, borrowed later.^[1]

Cognate with Italian acquaio and Old Occitan aiguier, beside the feminine aiguiera of the south.^[5] Littré compares Walloon aivî (“scoop”).^[6] Bloch and Wartburg note that the word now prevails in most Gallo-Romance dialects.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first record, a by-law of 1247, euwier is a drain carrying away waste water: no one may have a drain that empties onto the street.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The old sense of a stone channel or drain for waste water, in a courtyard or a passage, has survived only as a technical term.^[3][4] The household sense, a fixed basin with a drain where the dishes are washed, is first recorded by Littré in 1865 and has become the usual one;^[3][2] with running water came the phrase robinet d'évier, and the word stays apart from lavabo, the evier belonging to the kitchen and the lavabo to washing oneself.^[3]

In some rural parts of France (Burgundy and the Rhône valley as far as the Ardèche) évier is the room next to the kitchen where the washing-up is done.^[3]

Timeline

• 1247 – Euwier “drain for waste water” appears in a collection of acts edited by Tailliar.^[4][3]
• 1690 – Furetière spells it évier.^[2]
• 1835 – The Académie records pierre d'évier.^[4]
• 1865 – First record of the sense “kitchen sink”.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A kitchen sink: a fixed basin with a tap and a drain, used for washing dishes.^[7][4]
2. (dated, technical) A stone channel or drain carrying off waste water in a courtyard or passage.^[4][3]
3. (regional) In parts of rural France, a scullery beside the kitchen.^[3]

Related words

• eau
• aquarium
• Latin aquārius

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert