béret

Forms

béret m (plural bérets)^[1] First spelled berret (1819), a spelling still found in 1847.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Occitan berret, the Béarnais name of the flat, brimless cap worn by the peasants of that region,^[2][4][3][1] a narrower sense of the older Old Occitan berret (“cap”) (late 14th century).^[2][3][5] This goes back to Late Latin birrus (“hooded cloak”) (Augustine, 4th century), a garment worn by all classes under the late emperors;^[4][2] Wiktionary and Etymonline place Medieval Latin birretum between them.^[1][6] The Latin word is perhaps Celtic, related to Old Irish berr (“short”) and Welsh byr (“short”).^[4][2][1] Pierre Guiraud, cited by the Grand Robert, saw it instead as a doublet of Latin burra, from a Greek word meaning “tawny, red”.^[3]

Cognate with Italian berretta and Catalan barret, and related to French barrette.^[4][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A travel text of 1819 says that the peasants of Saint-Pé wear the berret of the troubadours;^[7] the GLLF dates the word to 1819 in Boiste.^[5]

Semantic evolution

At first the name of a local headgear of Béarn and the Basque Country, it came to name other soft, flat caps, by their origin (béret basque, béret alpin) or their use (béret militaire, béret de parachutiste); by metonymy béret vert and béret rouge name the soldiers who wear them.^[2][8] In the 1820s and 1830s the berret was also a fashionable women's headdress: Mme Celnart's toilette manual (1827) describes everyday and dress berrets for elegant young ladies, and Raymond's dictionary (1832) a new woman's cap shaped like a mushroom.^[7] The beret became a symbol of the average Frenchman as some foreigners, the English-speaking world above all, see him.^[2][8] English took beret in 1827 as a fashionable accessory.^[6]

Timeline

• late 14th century – Old Occitan berret “cap”.^[2]
• 1819 – Berret is first recorded in French.^[2][3][5]
• 1827 – A ladies' toilette manual describes berrets for young women;^[7] English beret is recorded.^[6]
• 1832 – Raymond's dictionary defines the berret as a new women's headdress.^[7]
• 1835 – The spelling béret appears, in the Académie's dictionary.^[2][4][7]
• 1847 – The spelling berret is still found.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A soft, round, flat woollen cap without a brim: béret basque.^[8][5][9]
2. Any cap of that shape, such as those of sailors, chasseurs alpins, soldiers or children.^[5][8]
3. (by metonymy) Bérets verts, legionnaires;^[8][2] bérets rouges, paratroopers.^[8][2]
4. A schoolchildren's game in which two teams compete to seize a beret.^[5]

Related words

• barrette
• Latin birrus
• Italian berretta
• English beret

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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