bac

Forms

bac m (plural bacs)^[1] Old French bac, first found in the plural bas; a Tournai record of 1612 spells it bacq.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French bac, probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *baccus (“container”),^[2][3][4][5] which can be inferred from Late Latin bacar (“wine vessel”) (glossed at the end of the 8th century) and bacarium (“water vessel”) (8th–9th century).^[2][6] The TLFi and Ernout and Meillet compare Vulgar Latin *baccinum, the source of bassin.^[2][6] Medieval Latin has baccus for a boat in 1077 and for a vessel in 1274.^[2]

The word is found all over Gallo-Romance, masculine and feminine, for a trough and hence a boat; it is peculiar to Gaul, and Bloch and Wartburg and Rey hold that it must be Gaulish,^[3][6] though Bloch and Wartburg find nothing convincing in Celtic.^[3] The FEW also leans to a Celtic origin.^[2] Rey notes Breton bag “boat” in Breton.^[6] Pierre Guiraud denies that the word is only Gallo-Romance and derives it from Latin bacchor (“to celebrate Bacchus”), taken as “to prepare wine in a vessel”.^[6][7] Wiktionary also mentions a Celtic or Germanic source.^[1]

The TLFi rejects a borrowing from Dutch bak, which is recorded later; the Dutch word, Low German back and English back “vessel” were rather taken from French.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1170 in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie, for a flat boat, and as bac in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval (1174–87).^[2] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert date Benoît's record to 1160.^[7][4]

Semantic evolution

The boat is a flat vessel used for short crossings of rivers and lakes; medieval ferries seem to have been less flat, and in Chrétien two men get into the bac.^[6][2] Eustache Deschamps used passer ce bac for getting married.^[8]

From the shape the word passed to vessels: a sink (1406, an isolated record), a basin (1468), a stone tank for rainwater (1612) and the brewer's vat (1752).^[2][6] From the Encyclopédie (1751) it is a container of many kinds in technology, then in electricity the case of an accumulator or battery cell.^[2][6] Today it is also the drawer of a refrigerator and the open box where records are sold, whence dans les bacs “on sale”.^[6] Belgian French uses bac à cendres for an ashtray, and in Haiti it is any flat-bottomed container used in trade.^[6]

The diminutive baquet (1328, through baqué, 1300) has meant a small tub from its first records.^[6][3]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for flat boats.^[2]
• 1174–87 – Bac appears in Chrétien de Troyes' Perceval.^[2]
• 1406 – It names a sink in a record from Poitiers.^[2]
• 1468 – Olivier de La Marche uses it for a basin.^[2]
• 1612 – A stone tank for rainwater, at Tournai.^[2]
• 1751 – The Encyclopédie uses it for a container in technology.^[2][6]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the brewer's vat.^[2]
• 1880 – Bac, short for baccalauréat, is first recorded.^[7][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wide, flat-bottomed boat for crossing a river, lake or strait; a ferry: passer le bac.^[4][2][10]
2. A container or tub for various uses: bac à sable (a sandbox), a litter tray.^[4][1]
3. A removable tray in a refrigerator: bac à légumes, bac à glace.^[4][11]
4. A drawer or small metal cabinet for filing: bac à fiches.^[4]
5. (technical) A vat or tank in brewing and industry; the case of an accumulator cell.^[2][11]

Word family

• baquet

Related words

• bassin
• Vulgar Latin *baccus

Usage notes

Bac is also a familiar abbreviation of baccalauréat, the school-leaving examination, recorded from 1880 (passer le bac).^[7][4][2] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert treat it as a separate word, bac 2.^[7][4] Mener le bac “to be in charge” is an old phrase.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 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
3. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 197b
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse