aulne

Forms

aulne m (plural aulnes)^[1] Also spelled aune.^[2][3][4] Old French ausne (about 1200), aune (1268); the spelling aulne is recorded in 1314.^[5][6]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[5][7] Most dictionaries give it as inherited from Old French ausne, inherited from Latin alnus (“alder”).^[5][2][3][1] Rey thinks that the Latin word took hold north of the Loire and the Vosges because it was supported there by Frankish *alisa of the same meaning, which explains the Old French form; south of that line it met Gaulish *verno, the source of verne and vergne, and did not prevail.^[5]

Bloch and Wartburg argue instead that the word cannot come from Latin, since most of France south of a line from the southern Vosges to the mouth of the Loire knows only the Gaulish word, and no place name of this type lies within that area: they take it from the same Frankish word or *alira, remade as *alinus after fraxinus (“ash tree”).^[7] The FEW also files it under the Frankish word,^[8] and Picoche thinks the Frankish source more likely for geographical and chronological reasons, though Latin is the easier sound change.^[9] Rey objects that this view, which goes back to Jakob Jud, ignores the spread of the Latin word through Romance, as in northern Italy.^[5]

The Latin and Germanic words are probably from the same Indo-European source,^[9] Proto-Indo-European *h₂élsnos;^[1] the Germanic family includes Old High German alira, German Erle and Dutch els.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded from the 12th century as the name of the alder, a tree of damp ground.^[5][2][3] In the 14th century the Ménagier de Paris advises strewing a room with alder leaves to catch fleas.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its single sense, the tree of wet places.^[5] In the 16th century Palissy and Olivier de Serres note that its bark gives a black dye used by hatters and tanners, and that the tree is called verne in some places.^[10]

Charles Nodier's French title of Goethe's ballad Erlkönig, Le Roi des aulnes, made the tree famous in literature;^[5][6] German Erle “alder” is related to English alder.^[5][6] Michel Tournier later used the title for a novel.^[6]

Timeline

• 12th century – First record.^[5][2]
• c. 1200 – The form ausne.^[5]
• 1268 – The spelling aune.^[6]
• 1314 – The spelling aulne.^[6]
• 14th century – The derivative aunaie “alder grove” appears.^[7][9]
• 16th century – Palissy and Olivier de Serres describe its bark as a black dye.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alder, a tree of the birch family growing in damp places, with flowers in catkins.^[11][6][4]

Word family

• aunaie

Related words

• verne
• vergne
• Latin alnus

Usage notes

Aune is a variant spelling of the tree's name;^[2][4] it is a homophone of the feminine aune, the old cloth measure ell, which is a different word, of Frankish origin.^[7][6] Regional synonyms are verne and vergne.^[11][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 14b
9. ^ a b c Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
10. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ 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