baraque

Forms

baraque f (plural baraques)^[1] First written barraque (1501–1506).^[2]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Catalan barraca (“small primitive shelter”), a word of Valencian Catalan, which may have come to French through Old Occitan baraca (1381, in a Latin charter from Marseille).^[2][3][1] The Catalan word is recorded from 1249 as Medieval Latin barraqua in Latin texts, and as barraque before 1276.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert take the French word from Spanish barraca,^[4][5] and the GLLF from Italian baracca, but the DHLF rules out an Italian source, as the only example earlier than the 17th century is probably an interpolation.^[6][2]

The further origin is obscure.^[2] The word may be a pre-Roman derivative either of Vulgar Latin *barra (“crossbar”) (the source of barre) or of the Iberian *barrum (“clay”), depending on whether the first huts were of wood or of clay.^[2][4][7] The Grand Robert suggests a link with Latin vara (“crossbar”).^[5] P. Aalto proposed a Syriac word, from an Assyrian word for a temple or palace, but the DHLF finds this unfounded, since the word does not exist in Arabic, the language that would have had to pass it on.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It named a construction of planks used as a shelter.^[2] Littré defines its first sense as a hut that soldiers built when they had no tents.^[8]

Semantic evolution

It was soon used for light buildings of other kinds: shelters for fishermen and workers, and stalls made of planks at fairs.^[8][6] In school slang it was a pupil's locker, as in Balzac (1832).^[9][8]

In familiar speech it became a poor, badly built house, a house where one was in service as a domestic (1821), and then any house, the pejorative sense fading as in godasse and bagnole.^[2] In theatre slang it named the auditorium, hence casser la baraque “to be a huge success” and, conversely, “to wreck an undertaking”;^[2][3] it is also used of a firm or any group.^[2][10]

The verb baraquer dates from the 17th century and baraquement from 1574;^[2] the adjective baraqué “well built”, said of a person, is from the 20th century.^[2] The English word barrack was borrowed from it in the 1680s.^[11]

Timeline

• 1501–1506 – First record, as barraque.^[2]
• 1574 – First record of baraquement.^[2]
• 1680s – English borrows it as barrack.^[11]
• 1821 – It is used of a house where one is a servant.^[2]
• 1832 – Balzac uses it for a schoolboy's locker.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A temporary building of planks, a hut or shelter, especially one housing soldiers, workers or equipment.^[3][10][9]
2. A stall or booth at a fair.^[3][10][9]
3. (familiar) A badly built or badly kept house, a shack; any house.^[3][10][1]
4. (familiar, pejorative) A firm or organization, especially a badly run one.^[3][10]
5. (informal) A big, strongly built man.^[1]
6. Casser la baraque: to be a huge success; also, to wreck an undertaking.^[3][10]

Word family

• baraquer
• baraquement
• baraqué

Related words

• English barrack

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com