armoire

Forms

armoire f (plural armoires)^[1] Old French armarie (1119), almarie, almaire (about 1160), armaire, aumaire and aumoire.^[2][3][4][5] The form armoire appears in the 15th century and prevails in the 16th.^[4][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French armaire, borrowed from Latin armārium (“cupboard, chest for tools, bookcase”),^[1][6][2][7] from arma (“tools, gear”).^[6][4][8] Bloch and Wartburg call the word borrowed from Latin, as are Old Occitan armari and Spanish armario;^[6] Rey speaks of the Latin word giving the Old French forms.^[4] Littré notes that the spelling armarie imitated Latin but was pronounced like the form with -aire, as the metre of the verse shows.^[5]

Rey observes that the peaceful word hides its link with arme: the Latin noun also meant “utensils”, and its derivative, which could mean a store of weapons, is mostly recorded for a cupboard and then a place to keep books.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Livre des Rois (12th century) speaks of un almarie ki esteit el porche del temple, a cupboard in the temple porch where offerings were kept, and calls the book cum armarie des secreiz Deu “like a cupboard of God's secrets”.^[5][8] In Old French the usual sense was a niche in a wall for storing books or the objects of worship.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1360 to 1460 the word was used of any storage space closed by a door, a cupboard; a common special sense (13th–15th centuries, longer in the dialects) was “larder”.^[4] From the early 13th century it also named a movable chest for luggage (1210), from which the wooden piece of furniture on feet, closed by one or two doors, developed; it spread at the expense of chests and was used above all for clothes and linen.^[4]

Armoire à glace, a wardrobe whose doors carry a mirror, goes back to Stendhal's armoire de glace (1830); familiarly it also means a very broad-shouldered man.^[4][8] Armoire normande is not recorded before Havard's dictionary (1887).^[4] In the 20th century the word is used beside placard for cabinets fixed to the wall (armoire à pharmacie, 1929) and for technical cabinets (armoire frigorifique, 1929).^[4] In Canadian French it is still used for “cupboard” (1725), as it was in France from the 14th to the 18th century.^[4]

English borrowed the French word as ambry in the late 14th century and as armoire in the 1570s.^[9]

Timeline

• 1119 – First record as armarie.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The form almaire is recorded.^[3]
• 1210 – Used for a movable chest for luggage.^[4]
• 1285 – Aumaire is used for a chest for sheets.^[4]
• 1461 – The form armoire is recorded, for a cupboard.^[4]
• 1570s – English borrows armoire.^[9]
• 1636 – Armoire à livres is recorded.^[4]
• 1725 – The Canadian sense “cupboard” is recorded.^[4]
• 1830 – Stendhal writes armoire de glace.^[4]
• 1887 – Havard's dictionary records armoire normande.^[4]
• 1929 – Armoire à pharmacie and armoire frigorifique are recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall piece of furniture closed by one or two doors, with shelves, for storing linen, clothes or provisions; a wardrobe or cupboard: armoire à linge.^[3][8][1]
2. (historical) A recess made in the thickness of a wall and closed by doors.^[3][10][8]
3. Armoire à glace: a wardrobe with a mirrored door, and (figurative, familiar) a very broad-shouldered, stocky man.^[3][8][1]
4. (technical) A cabinet holding apparatus: armoire frigorifique, armoire chauffante.^[10][4]
5. (Canada) Cupboard, wall cupboard (placard).^[4]

Related words

• arme
• Latin armārium
• English armoire
• English ambry

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 253b
8. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b 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