baille

Forms

baille f (plural bailles)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin baiula (“a vessel for carrying something”), the feminine of Latin baiulus (“porter”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The verb formed on the masculine gave bailler, to give.^[2] The GLLF instead has it come through Italian baglia, from a Latin *baiula aquae (“water-carrier”).^[6] Littré, too, cites the Italian word, and compared Breton, Danish and Swedish words for a tub.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1325, in the Chronique de Morée, for a tub.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

On sailing ships a baille was a wooden tub, wider at the bottom than at the top, used for many purposes;^[8][2] an old navy baille was in fact a cask sawn in two.^[8] In the 19th century it also named a washerwoman's tub and a vat for fermenting grapes.^[8]

Sailors used it scornfully for a slow or decrepit ship, an old tub,^[8][4][2] and, by antiphrasis, for the navy's training ship, so that la Baille became the nickname of the École navale (about 1865).^[2][4][8] By metonymy it came to mean “water” in naval slang (1767), and then, in general familiar use, the sea: la grande baille is recorded in 1847.^[4][2][8]

Timeline

• 1325 – First recorded, in the Chronique de Morée.^[6][3]
• 1767 – Naval slang uses it for water.^[4][2]
• 1847 – La grande baille “the sea”.^[8]
• c. 1865 – Nickname of the navy's training ship, later of the École navale.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) A wooden tub used on board ship.^[8][4][6]
2. (slang, pejorative) An old, slow or battered ship, a rafiot.^[8][4][6]
3. (familiar) Water, the sea: à la baille!, la grande baille, ils l'ont jeté à la baille.^[8][4]
4. La Baille: the nickname of the naval school, the École navale.^[8][4][6]

Related words

• bailler
• Latin baiulus

Usage notes

Littré also records a baille used in northern France for the poles fencing a pasture.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 206a
6. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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