bailler

Forms

bailler^[1] Old French baillier beside bailler.^[2] Anglo-Norman spellings include bailer, baler and baillir.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French baillier, inherited from Latin bāiulō (“to carry on one's back”) (in Plautus), which in Medieval Latin also meant “to hold an office” (7th–8th centuries).^[2][4][5][6] The Latin verb is derived from bāiulus (“porter”), a word of obscure origin.^[2] Old French also had baillir “to govern”, the source of bailli.^[2][7]

The sense “to give”, unknown in Latin, developed only in Gallo-Romance, from “to bring, carry”.^[2][5] Compare Old Occitan balhar (“to deliver, give”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the first texts (about 1130–1160) baillier means “to carry”, “to receive, accept”, “to seize” and already “to give”.^[2] The Grand Larousse dates the word to the Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050).^[8]

Semantic evolution

Very common in Old French, the verb meant “to carry” until the 13th century and, until then, “to govern” too.^[2] The sense “to give” was more usual than donner until the 17th century, but donner and its many derivatives won out.^[5][2] Vaugelas already called bailler old-fashioned, and Richelet (1680) allowed it only in legal procedure.^[2] In law it kept the senses “to put at someone's disposal” and “to let on lease” (1373) before these aged in their turn.^[2]

Today it survives in la bailler belle (1594), an expansion of en bailler (1545), “to deceive someone with fine promises”.^[2][9] In the patois it is still widely used for “to give”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1130–1160 – Baillier means “to carry”, “to seize” and “to give”.^[2]
• 1373 – The legal sense “to lease” appears.^[2]
• 1534 – Bailler is used with blows as the object.^[2]
• 1545 – En bailler “to fool someone” is recorded.^[2]
• 1594 – La bailler belle is recorded.^[2][9]
• 1680 – Richelet restricts it to legal practice.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, regional) To give, hand over, deliver.^[10][9]
2. (law, dated) To let on lease: bailler à ferme.^[10][7]
3. La bailler belle, la bailler bonne (à quelqu'un): to try to make someone believe something incredible.^[9][8]
4. (fishing) To throw soaked fish roe onto drift nets to catch sardines.^[10][7]

Word family

• bailleur
• bail

Related words

• bailli
• baille
• Latin bāiulō

Usage notes

Littré insists that bailler, with a short /a/, should not be confused with bâiller “to yawn”, which has a long one.^[7] The Petit Robert notes the homophone bayer.^[9] The noun bail “lease” is a back-formation from the verb.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c 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