avoine

Forms

avoine f (plural avoines)^[1] Old French aveine (12th–16th centuries) and avene (15th–16th centuries); avoine is written from about 1200.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include avaine, aveyne and avoyn.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French aveine, inherited from Latin avēna (“oats”).^[2][5][1][6] In Latin the word chiefly named the wild grass, regarded as a weed or at best a fodder plant.^[2] Rey notes that it has some likeness to Baltic words and Old Prussian, but does not seem to be Indo-European.^[2]

The older form was ousted by the present one only in the 17th century.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg say that the present form was that of the eastern dialects and that the reason French adopted it is not firmly established;^[5] Rey thinks the form, the pronunciation of the court in Vaugelas's time, is more likely due to the labial /v/, as in armoire and moins, than to eastern dialect speech.^[2] Today the form with /e/ is the western one, the form with /wa/ that of the East and North-East, while the dialects of the South use a derivative of Latin cibō (“to feed (livestock)”), as Old Occitan and Catalan civada do.^[5][2]

Cognate with Italian avena, Spanish avena and Portuguese aveia.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 12th century as aveine, naming the cereal oats;^[2][3] about 1165 Chrétien de Troyes used avainne for a field of oats.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of the cereal and its grain, fed above all to horses, and many phrases name varieties of the plant, among them folle avoine, the wild oat (recorded in Canadian French in 1671).^[2][8] From horses earning their feed came the figurative gagner son avoine “to earn one's living” (1690).^[2]

In cabmen's slang avoine was a lash of the whip (1866), which gave the slang sense “a thrashing” (1883).^[2][8] The verb avoiner, first “to feed (a horse) oats” (1893), likewise came to mean “to beat”; in many regions it meant “to feast someone”, and in Swiss French it also means “to scold”, whence an avoinée.^[2]

Timeline

• 12th century – Old French aveine is recorded.^[2][3]
• c. 1165 – Chrétien de Troyes uses avainne for a field of oats.^[2]
• c. 1200 – The form avoine first appears in writing.^[2][3]
• 1671 – Folle avoine is recorded in Canadian French.^[2]
• 1690 – Gagner son avoine “to earn one's living” is recorded.^[2]
• 17th century – Avoine finally replaces aveine.^[2]
• 1866 – In cabmen's slang it means a lash of the whip.^[2][8]
• 1883 – It means a thrashing in slang.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Oats, a cereal grass with grains in loose panicles; its grain, fed to horses and poultry: donner de l'avoine aux chevaux.^[9][10]
2. Folle avoine: wild oat, a weed of fields and waste ground.^[10][9]
3. Flocons d'avoine: rolled oats.^[9]
4. (slang) A punch or a sound beating: donner une avoine.^[8][1][2]

Word family

• avoiner

Related words

• avoinée
• Latin avēna

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 t u v Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 1204a
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d 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
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse