Pronunciation
Forms
arbre m (plural arbres)[1] Old French also aubre, haubre.[2]
Etymology
It is inherited from Latin arbor (“tree; mast”), from the accusative “arborem”, in popular Latin *arbrem.[3][4][5][6] Rey calls the Latin word obscure, there being no common Indo-European word for “tree”; its feminine gender in Latin is explained by the tree's role as “mother of fruits”, but most Romance languages made it masculine, like other nouns in “-or”.[3][7] Latin “arbor” already meant a mast and a part of the oil press.[4][7]
Cognate with Romanian arbore, Italian albero, Occitan arbre, Catalan arbre, Spanish árbol and Portuguese árvore, which kept the feminine.[1][3]
Earliest recorded meaning
It is in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100): Haut sont li pui et mout haut sont les arbres, “high are the hills and very high the trees”.[2][7]
Semantic evolution
The word has been common at every period, with symbolic values of mythical origin (the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from the 12th century; the Christmas tree) and the image of lineage, as in the tree of Jesse and the arbre généalogique.[3] Many phrases name plants: arbre de Judée (16th century), arbre à pain, arbre du voyageur; in African French there are the arbre à palabres and the arbre à beurre (shea).[3][1]
Objects shaped like a trunk took the name: a mast (13th to late 18th century), the shaft of a mill or press (12th century), whence the mechanical arbre “shaft, axle”: arbre de couche (1866), arbre à cames.[3][1] Branching patterns gave the alchemists' arbre de Mars (1751) and the tree diagrams of logic and linguistics.[3][1] During the Revolution, and again in 1830 and 1848, arbres de la Liberté were planted.[7]
Timeline
- c. 1100 – Arbres in the Chanson de Roland.[2]
- 12th century – The shaft of a mill or press.[3]
- 13th century – A ship's mast.[3]
- 16th century – Arbre de Judée.[3]
- 1690 – The axis of a pendulum.[3]
- 1866 – Arbre de couche.[3]
Meanings
Noun
- A tree: a large woody plant with a trunk branching above a certain height: arbre fruitier, arbre de Noël.[8][7]
- Arbre généalogique: a family tree.[3][1]
- A branching diagram: (linguistics, computing) a tree.[1][3]
- (mechanics) A shaft, axle: arbre à cames (camshaft), arbre moteur.[1][3]
- (Africa) Arbre à palabres: a tree under which a community meets to talk.[3]
Related words
- arbrisseau
- arbuste
- arborescent
- arboriculture
- Latin arbor
Usage notes
The saying entre l'arbre et l'écorce il ne faut pas mettre le doigt (1666) advises against meddling in a dispute between close parties.[8][1]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 88a
- ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
- ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Arbre.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/arbre. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.
Last edited on . ·