aune

Forms

aune f (plural aunes)^[1] Old French alne.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French alne, borrowed from Frankish *alina (“forearm”).^{[4][2][5][6][7]} The Frankish form is reconstructed from Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (aleina), elina, and the Old Norse and Middle Dutch words;^[2][4][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *alinō.^[2][4][1] Rey thinks it probably passed through a Medieval Latin form, Littré through Late Latin alena, and Wiktionary through Vulgar Latin *alina.^[2][3][1] The Germanic words meant “forearm”, hence “the length of a forearm”, as with other units named after the body (brasse, pied, pouce).^[2][4]

Cognate with Old Occitan aina,^[4] Italian auna,^[3] German Elle, Old English eln, Old Norse alin and English ell,^[1][4] and, further back, with Latin ulna (“forearm; ell”), which Bloch and Wartburg call the same word,^[4][1] and Ancient Greek ὠλένη (ōlénē, “elbow”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as alne in the Chanson de Roland (about 1080), as a measure of length;^[2][4][8] Littré quotes from the Roncevaux text a lance driven in une alne et un quartier “an ell and a quarter” deep.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In French the aune was a measure of about 1.18 m, later 1.20 m, varying from place to place and used above all by merchants to measure cloth for sale, until it was abolished in 1840.^[2][6][9] The word also named the measuring rod of that length, and the length of cloth measured with it.^[10][8] The rod became the emblem of the cloth merchant, and chevalier de l'aune was an ironic name for a draper or his clerk.^[10]

After the measure went out of use the word survived in history and in figurative phrases.^[2] Long d'une aune “very long”, said especially of a nose, dates from the 17th century,^[2] and tout du long de l'aune “excessively” is found in Molière in 1669, with an earlier au long de l'aune in Noël du Fail (1585).^[11] Savoir ce qu'en vaut l'aune means to know something's cost from experience, and mesurer les autres à son aune to judge others by oneself.^[2][6][10] Today à l'aune de means “by the yardstick of”.^[1]

From the noun come the verb auner “to measure by the ell” (about 1180), used mostly of cloth, aunage (a duty paid by cloth merchants in 1318, then the measuring itself in 1322) and aunée “an ell's length” (late 13th century, ausnee).^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1080 – Alne appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][4][8]
• c. 1180 – The verb auner is recorded.^[2][4]
• Late 13th century – Ausnee, the later aunée, names the length of an ell.^[2]
• 1318 – Aunage names a duty paid by cloth merchants.^[2]
• 1585 – Au long de l'aune is found in Noël du Fail.^[11]
• 1656 – Oudin records en avoir tout du long de l'aune.^[11]
• 1669 – Molière uses tout du long de l'aune “excessively”.^[11]
• 17th century – Long d'une aune “very long” appears.^[2]
• 1840 – The aune is abolished as a measure.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) An ell, an old unit of length (about 1.18 m in Paris), used chiefly to measure cloth.^[6][10][9]
2. A length of cloth measured by the ell: trois aunes de toile.^[10][3][8]
3. A measuring rod one ell long.^[10][9][1]
4. (figurative) A yardstick, a standard of judgment, chiefly in à l'aune de: juger un livre à l'aune de son succès.^[1]
5. Mesurer les autres à son aune: to judge others by oneself.^[6][10]
6. (dated) Savoir ce qu'en vaut l'aune: to know from experience what something costs.^[10][3][2]
7. (dated) Tout du long de l'aune: a great deal, excessively.^[10][11]

Word family

• auner
• aunage
• aunée

Related words

• English ell
• Latin ulna

Usage notes

As a masculine noun, aune is also a spelling of aulne “alder”, which goes back to Latin alnus.^[5][6][1] Bloch and Wartburg doubt that the tree name comes straight from the Latin word, since most of southern France says verne or vergne, and take it from Frankish *alisa reshaped after fraxinus (“ash”).^[4][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 13b
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
11. ^ a b c d e Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
12. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 14b