barbier

Forms

barbier m (plural barbiers, feminine barbière)^[1] Old French had the nominative barbere beside the oblique barbeor, whence barbieur in the 14th century.^[2] Anglo-Norman spellings include barbour, barbur and barbeer.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from French barbe + -ier, from barbe “beard”.^[1][4][5][6] barbe itself is from Latin barba (“beard”).^[6]

Cognate with Old Occitan barbier, Spanish barbero, Portuguese barbeiro and Italian barbiere.^[2] English barber was taken from the Anglo-Norman form barbour.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1221 for a man who shaved and trimmed hair and beards and also did minor surgery and pulled teeth.^[3] Rey dates the word to about 1221 and says it long meant both the man who shaved beards and one who worked as a surgeon at the same time;^[8] the Grand Robert dates the sense “surgeon” to about 1220 and “one who shaves” to about 1230.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the barber was also a surgeon: Joinville tells how barbers cut away the dead flesh from the gums of the sick crusaders.^[2] This double trade, the barbier-chirurgien, lasted a long time;^[8] the barbers of the 18th century still treated wounds and fractures.^[5] The narrower sense of a man who shaves beards later gave way to coiffeur, but it survives in Canadian and Lebanese French for a men's hairdresser.^[8][5]

About 1580 the word was also given to a fish whose fin is shaped like a sharp spine.^[8] The proverb un barbier rase l'autre “people of the same trade help one another” is recorded by Littré and in an 1813 dictionary of bad language.^[2][9] In early 20th-century popular speech a barbier was also a bore who keeps one talking.^[9]

Timeline

• 1221 – First record, in Anglo-Norman, of the barber who also practises minor surgery.^[3]
• c. 1230 – The sense “one who shaves beards” is dated.^[4]
• 1241 – The word appears in the cartulary of Notre-Dame de Bonport.^[10][6]
• 1292 – The feminine barbière, the barber's wife, is recorded.^[9]
• c. 1580 – It names a fish with a spine-shaped fin.^[8]
• 1813 – The proverb un barbier rase l'autre is recorded.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A man whose trade was to shave beards with an open razor; a barber.^[5][9]
2. (historical) A barber who also practised surgery, the chirurgien-barbier.^[9][10]
3. (Canada, dated) A men's hairdresser.^[5][8]
4. A name for several fish, such as the anthias of the Mediterranean.^[11][9]

Related words

• barbe
• barbu
• Latin barba
• English barber

Usage notes

Un barbier rase l'autre is said of people of one trade or group who do one another favours.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)