aigre

Forms

aigre (plural aigres)^[1] Old French also egre.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French aigre, inherited from Vulgar Latin *ācrus, from Latin ācer (“sharp, pointed, pungent”), which passed into the second declension in popular Latin.^[3][2][4][1] In Latin a sharp taste was also expressed by acūtus; only this adjective developed in the Romance languages in that sense, displacing acidus and acerbus.^[3][4] Bloch and Wartburg think the form, beside an Old French aire, is due to a particular development, as in maigre.^[4] The learned âcre is a doublet from the same Latin word.^[1][2]

Cognate with Romanian acru, Italian agro, Occitan agre, Catalan agre, Spanish agrio and Portuguese agro.^[5][6][4] Wiktionary traces the Latin adjective through Proto-Italic to Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱrós (“sharp”);^[1] the Petit Robert sets it under a root meaning “sharp” also seen in Ancient Greek ἄκρος (ákros, “extreme”) and ὀξύς (oxús, “sharp, acid”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is in the Judeo-French glosses of Rashi (11th century), where aigre means “greedy”; the same glosses use it as a noun for “vinegar”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the adjective was used of people and animals for “eager for” (aigre de, about 1178, in the Roman de Renart), “impetuous, ardent” (before 1188) and “fierce” (13th century), and of things for “harsh, painful” (egre faim, about 1121); these senses have disappeared.^[3][2] The concrete sense “sharp, sour to the taste” is found in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès (1170–1171), and gave the compound vinaigre.^[3][2]

By analogy it was applied to a shrill voice or sound (16th century, Montaigne), to a smell (1690), to harsh colours (1762) and to a biting wind (1835); in technical use it describes a brittle metal (16th century, Amyot) and an acid soil (1845).^[2] Figuratively it qualified irritating behaviour and words from the 15th–16th centuries, and the sense “disagreeable, sour-tempered” dates from 1370.^[2] The noun l'aigre “sour taste or smell” (1660) is used in tourner à l'aigre (1835), said of wine and, figuratively, of a quarrel that turns bitter.^[2]

The English word eager (late 13th century) comes from the Old French adjective; its sense “full of keen desire” arose in English.^[7]

Timeline

• 11th century – Rashi's glosses use aigre for “greedy” and, as a noun, for “vinegar”.^[3][2]
• c. 1121 – Egre faim “harsh hunger” in the Anglo-Norman Voyage of Saint Brendan.^[3]
• 1170–1171 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for a sour taste.^[3]
• before 1188 – Egre “impetuous, ardent” in Partonopeus.^[3]
• late 13th century – English borrows it as eager.^[7]
• 1370 – First record of the sense “disagreeable, sour-tempered”.^[2]
• 16th century – Used of a shrill voice and of a brittle metal.^[2]
• 1660 – The noun l'aigre “sour taste” appears.^[2]
• 1835 – Tourner à l'aigre and vent aigre are recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Unpleasantly sour or acid to the taste or smell, especially of milk or wine that has turned.^[6][8][9]
2. Of a sound or voice: shrill, piercing.^[6][8]
3. Of air or wind: sharp and biting.^[6][9]
4. Of colours: harsh, garish, badly matched.^[8][9]
5. (figurative) Sharp and bitter in manner or words, acrimonious.^[6][2]
6. (metallurgy) Of a metal: brittle, not ductile.^[9][2]

Noun

1. L'aigre: a sour taste or smell, as in tourner à l'aigre “to turn sour”, also figuratively of a dispute.^[6][2]

Word family

• aigreur
• aigrir
• aigrelet
• aigret
• aigre-doux

Related words

• vinaigre
• âcre
• Latin ācer
• English eager

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 j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette