baron

Forms

baron m (plural barons, feminine baronne)^[1] Old French nominative ber (also bers), oblique baron.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

As a feudal title it is borrowed from Frankish *barō (“free man”).^{[2][5][6][7][4][8]} The Salic Law has the compound sacebaro, a royal official below the count who collected judicial fines;^[4][2] Rey connects its first part with Old Norse saka (“to accuse”) and its second with berja (“to strike, kill”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to cut”).^[4]

Before the Franks invaded Gaul, Germanic soldiers in the Roman armies had already brought the word into Latin with its proper sense, free man or warrior: Isidore of Seville has Late Latin barō (“mercenary”), and the Salic Law uses it for a man as opposed to a woman.^[2][4] Wiktionary therefore takes the Old French oblique case baron as inherited from the Latin accusative barōnem, with the nominative ber as the regular outcome of the Latin nominative.^[1] The Old Occitan nominative was likewise bar.^[2][3]

Spanish varón (“man, male”) and Portuguese varão keep the old sense; Italian barone was borrowed from French.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the 10th century in the Vie de saint Léger.^[2][6] In the Chanson de Roland (1080) ber and baron mean a brave, worthy man and a great lord: Seigneur baron, à Charlemagne irez.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word meant a brave man, a saint, then a husband (end of the 12th century), a sense kept in Picard and still listed in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[4][3] In the feudal period it named a great lord of the realm, the direct vassal of the king, and any noble of high rank, with a note of valour; from the 12th century it was also the holder of a barony, below the count.^[4] Since the Revolution it is only a title of nobility.^[4][7]

By analogy it came to mean a powerful man (19th century), as in les barons de la finance, and in the 20th century the old sense “great vassal” was taken up in politics (les barons du gaullisme).^[4][3][7] In slang, then in familiar use, a baron is an accomplice who poses as a customer so that the swindler can fool the real ones (1901); Bob dates it from 1894.^[4][7][9]

Timeline

• 900s – First recorded in the Vie de saint Léger.^[2][6]
• 1080 – Ber and baron in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• c. 1138 – The derivative baronie appears.^[4]
• End of the 12th century – It is used for a husband.^[4]
• c. 1300 – Baronne is first found, meaning “wife”.^[4][2]
• 1611 – Baronne as a baron's wife or a woman holding a barony.^[4][2]
• 1901 – Slang sense “accomplice posing as a customer”.^[4][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (feudalism) A great lord of the realm, holding directly from the king: les hauts barons.^[7][5]
2. A holder of the title of baron, ranking above the knight and below the viscount: Monsieur le baron.^[7][5]
3. (familiar) A powerful figure in a field, a magnate: les barons de l'industrie.^[7][3]
4. (slang) An accomplice posing as a customer to lure buyers, a shill.^[7][4][9]
5. (obsolete) A husband.^[3][4]

Word family

• baronne
• baronnie
• baronnage
• baronnet

Related words

• Frankish *barō

Usage notes

The cooking term baron (baron d'agneau, the two legs and the loin of a lamb) is dated 1839 by the Grand Robert and 1928 by Rey; it may come from the English baron of beef, and a link with the title is doubtful.^[5][4][7] Another baron, a very large glass of beer in some Paris cafés (20th century), is an uncertain metaphor from one of these.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 68b
9. ^ a b Bob, dictionnaire d'argot, de français familier et populaire, languefrancaise.net/Bob