anille

Forms

anille f (plural anilles)^[1] Old French eneille and anëille.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French anëille, inherited from Latin anaticula (“duckling”), a diminutive of anas (“duck”).^[2][1][4][5] The DMF and the DEAF file the Middle and Old French word under the same etymon, and Tobler–Lommatzsch also refers it to the Latin diminutive.^[6][7][3] The Grand Robert explains the sense “crutch” by an analogy with the waddling gait of a duck, together with a metonymy.^[2]

The technical word nille comes from it by the loss of the initial vowel, which was taken for part of the feminine article.^[8][9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1215 as eneille “crutch”,^[2] in Péan Gatineau's Vie de saint Martin, of a poor man Qui aleit o .II. eneilles (“who went about on two crutches”).^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

From the crutch the word passed to other props and fittings: a royal account of 1397 mentions a bridle à anille, where it names the mouthpiece of a bit,^[6][2] and in 1426 a Lille document uses it for the props holding up the timbers of the market halls.^[10] In Middle French it also named a brace or support in a mill.^[6]

Cotgrave in 1611 glosses it both as the iron fixed in a millstone and as a heraldic charge.^[11] The heraldic sense, a figure of two C-shaped hooks set back to back, is dated 1690 by the Grand Robert.^[2][8] The sense “crutch” lives on only as an old or regional word, recorded in a dictionary of the popular speech of Rennes in 1891.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – Eneille “crutch” appears in Péan Gatineau's Vie de saint Martin.^[2][10]
• 1397 – A royal account mentions a bridle à anille.^[6][2]
• 1426 – A Lille document uses it for a prop supporting timbers.^[10]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the millstone iron and the heraldic charge.^[11]
• 1690 – The heraldic sense is recorded.^[2]
• 1891 – A dictionary of the speech of Rennes records anille “crutch”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic or regional) A crutch.^[8][2]
2. (technical) A hook of a horse's or donkey's bit.^[8][2]
3. (heraldry) A charge made of two C-shaped hooks set back to back and joined by two crossbars.^[8][2][5]
4. (technical) The iron fitting set in a millstone to strengthen it, also called nille.^[8][12][2]
5. (botany) A tendril of a climbing plant.^[8][1]

Word family

• nille

Related words

• Latin anas

Usage notes

The TLFi treats the millstone iron and the tendril as a homograph of the same spelling.^[8] Littré enters the heraldic and millstone senses under the spelling annille.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 1:385
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 24, 528b
5. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
6. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
11. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
12. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette