armure

Forms

armure f (plural armures)^[1] Old French armeüre, armeure;^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also armour, armur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French armeüre, inherited from Latin armātūra (“armament, equipment of a soldier”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed on armō (“to arm”), from arma (“arms”).^[4][7][5] The same Latin word was later borrowed as armature, its learned doublet.^[1][2]

Cognate with Italian armatura, Occitan armadura, Catalan armadura, Spanish armadura and Portuguese armadura.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rey dates armeure to 1130, as the set of defensive arms covering the body; the Grand Robert and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary give 1155 for armeüre.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

As armeure came to mean the defensive arms as a whole, the older arme gave up that sense.^[2] A sense “offensive weapons” (about 1200) died out in the 16th century, and Old French also used the word for an armed man (about 1280), a battle, military drill (1271), fencing and coats of arms (about 1286), uses in which it still felt like a collective of arme.^[2] A 13th-century Chronicle of Reims and Joinville use armeüre of a knight's armour.^[9]

From 1226 the word also meant a moral protection, a use that survives as a literary metaphor; the same image gives the figurative senses for the protective covering of animals (13th century, again 1611) and plants (1501).^[2] Technical senses grew beside armature, with which armure competes: the iron fitted to a magnet (1668, or 1693 according to the BHVF), strengthening pieces of a machine (1751), ship's timbers (1783) and the sheathing of electric cables (mid-20th century).^[2][10] In weaving it names the pattern in which warp and weft cross, and in music the key signature.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 1130 – First recorded as armeure, the defensive arms.^[2]
• 1155 – Armeüre is recorded by the Grand Robert and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary.^[4][3]
• About 1200 – Used for offensive weapons, a sense lost in the 16th century.^[2]
• 1226 – First used of a moral protection.^[2]
• 1271 – Means military drill.^[2]
• 1501 – Used of the protective parts of plants.^[2]
• 1668 – Names the armature of a magnet.^[2]
• 1751 – Names the strengthening pieces of a machine.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A suit of armour, the defensive pieces that protected the body of a soldier; especially the plate armour of a medieval man-at-arms.^[7][11][12]
2. (figurative) Something that covers and protects, as a defence: une armure d'indifférence.^[11]
3. A protective covering, as of an electric cable.^[5]
4. (weaving) The weave, the order in which the warp threads cross the weft.^[11][13]
5. (music) The key signature.^[1][13]

Word family

• armurerie
• armurier

Related words

• armer
• arme
• armature
• Latin armātūra

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 268a
7. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org