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baroque

Etymology and origin of the French word baroque

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1531, inventory of Charles V, barroque
Borrowed from
Portuguese barroco
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French baroque
English baroque

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ba.ʁɔk/[1]

Forms

baroque (plural baroques)[1] First written barroque (1531); baroc in Regnard (1688).[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Portuguese barroco (“irregular pearl”), earlier “barroca” (13th century), a granite rock.[4][2][5][6] The origin of the Portuguese word is obscure, probably pre-Roman because of its suffix “-ŏccu”, common in the Iberian peninsula;[2] Pierre Guiraud connected it with a Gallo-Romance “barus” “divergent”,[2][7] and Wiktionary mentions Latin verrūca (“wart”).[1] Rey rejects a borrowing from Spanish barrueco, which has the jewellers' sense only from 1605;[2] the first French text, which also has “ajorffe”, another Iberian word for a pearl, points to the Peninsula.[5]

The sense “bizarre” may owe something to Medieval Latin baroco, an arbitrary name made up by the Scholastics for a kind of syllogism, which their opponents mocked;[2][5] Littré even took this for the source of the word.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

An inventory of Charles V (1531) lists gros ajorffes dictz barroques, large irregular pearls.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Perle baroque “irregular pearl” was recorded by Furetière (1690) and the Académie (1718) and is now a jewellers' term.[2][9] The figurative sense “odd, shocking”, like that of grotesque, appears about 1700 (Saint-Simon 1701, Autreau 1718[2][4][5][3]; un visage bien baroc in Regnard, 1688) and is in dictionaries from 1740.[2][4][5][3]

In art history it named, from 1749, a style that breaks the rules of Renaissance classicism; in 1788 Quatremère de Quincy defined le baroque as a refinement or abuse of the bizarre in architecture.[4][2] The neutral use for the style and period of 17th- and 18th-century art, music and literature came back from German barock about 1912.[9]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Portuguese barroca, a rock.[4][2]
  • 1531 – Barroques, irregular pearls.[4][2]
  • 1688 – Un visage bien baroc (Regnard).[3][2]
  • 1701 – “Bizarre” (Saint-Simon).[5][9]
  • 1718 – “Odd, shocking” (Autreau).[4]
  • 1740 – First recorded by the Académie.[4]
  • 1749 – Of a style of architecture and decoration.[4][2]
  • 1788 – Le baroque as a noun in architecture.[4]
  • 1912 – The art-historical sense, from German.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Perle baroque: an irregularly shaped pearl.[9][8]
  2. Odd and unexpected; bizarre, eccentric.[9][10]
  3. (art, music) Baroque, of the style that followed Renaissance classicism.[9][4]

Noun

  1. Le baroque: the Baroque style or period.[11][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
  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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 21, 541b
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ 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)

Borrowed into

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Baroque.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/baroque. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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