basoche

Forms

basoche f (plural basoches)^[1] Old French Besoiche; also spelled bazoche, the form Larousse records beside basoche.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French besoiche, inherited from Latin basilica (“public hall, court of justice, church”), which is from Ancient Greek βασιλική (basilikḗ).^[2][3][4][1] The sound development is unusual: the expected outcome would be ⟨*baseuche⟩, as in the place name La Bazeuge.^[2][3][1] The word is common in place names of the centre and west of northern France, Littré's Bazoche, Bazoge and Bazoque, where it meant a memorial church or, in some cases, a covered market.^[2][5][6]

How the common noun came to mean a guild of law clerks is obscure: it may be a learned revival of the classical sense “law court”, or the extension to court clerks of a word for all the clergy of a church.^[2][3][6] Bloch and Wartburg see in it the Old French name of the basilica of Saint-Martin at Tours.^[6] Pierre Guiraud proposed instead a Gallo-Romance *basocca “seat”, from Latin basis (“base”).^[3][7][8] The word is a doublet of basilique.^[1]

Cognate with Romanian biserică (“church”) and Romansh baselgia.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apart from a Latinized place name basocham (1144), it is first found early in the 13th century in Péan Gatineau's life of Saint Martin, as Besoiche, the basilica at Tours: Qu'il ont la Besoiche apelee “which they called the Besoiche”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the word lived on mainly in place names and was hardly used as a common noun.^[3][2] The sense “community of the clerks of the Parlement of Paris” appears at the end of the 15th century, known first through the derivative basochien (1480); the noun itself is found in 1519 in Jean Bouchet.^[3][2][6] Bouchet's epitaph of Pierre Blanchet praises him for having plays staged by the Bazoche.^[2]

From 1833 the word was extended, familiarly and usually with a pejorative tone, to all the people of the law courts;^[3] the Académie recorded this use in 1878, and Larousse already in 1867.^[2][10]

Timeline

• early 13th century – Besoiche “basilica” in Péan Gatineau.^[2]
• 1480 – The derivative basochien shows the sense “clerks' guild”.^[2][6]
• 1519 – Jean Bouchet uses Bazoche.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records basoche.^[2]
• 1833 – Extended to people of the law courts in general.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (history) The guild of the clerks of the Parlement of Paris and of some provincial courts, with its own privileges and jurisdiction, headed by a king and a chancellor.^[2][8][5]
2. (familiar, pejorative) Lawyers and the people of the law courts collectively.^[8][11][2]
3. The habits and ways of law clerks.^[11][5]

Word family

• basochien

Related words

• basilique
• Latin basilica

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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 270a
5. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse