blé

Forms

blé m (plural blés)^[1] Old French blet, blé and the eastern form blef, beside a feminine blee from the Latin plural.^[2][3] The spelling bled was still used by some writers in the late 18th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French blet, inherited from Medieval Latin bladum (“crop, produce”), from Frankish *blād (“produce of the land”).^[2][3][4] The Frankish word is reconstructed from Middle Dutch blat (“harvest, yield”) and Old English blǣd (“produce, harvest”),^[2][3][5] which go back to an Indo-European root meaning “flower, leaf”, also seen in Latin flōs.^[2][3] Wiktionary gives the chain as Proto-Germanic *blēduz (“flower, leaf”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰleh₃- (“to bloom”), and adds Old High German blāt.^[1]

In Medieval Latin the neuter plural blada meant “harvest, produce of the vineyard” in the late 7th century; the sense “cereal, corn” is certain only in a Cluny charter of about 1000 (Rey dates it about 1100), and it reached Catalonia by 967 and northern Italy in the 11th century.^[2][3] The Grand Robert and the GLLF leave the origin open between the Frankish word and a Gaulish *blato (“flour”), compared with Welsh blawd.^[6][7] Littré had already reported Grimm's Celtic explanation and Diez's derivation from Latin ablāta (“things carried away”), and rejected both.^[8]

Cognate with Old Occitan blat, Catalan blat and Italian biada, biava.^[5][9][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as blet in the Chanson de Roland: Soleil n'i luist, ne blet n'i puet pas creistre “No sun shines there, and no grain can grow”.^[8][2] In Old French it was a general word for the cereals grown for food, and sometimes for pulses too.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The general Old French sense gave “field of cereals” and “grain” by 1160;^[2][3] the meaning “wheat” in particular is found first at Compiègne in 1248 and was at first regional.^[2][3] The word also named other grasses than wheat: rye in 1530,^[2][3] and in blé noir “buckwheat” and blé d'Inde “maize” (1603), which is still common in Canada.^[3][8]

The proverb manger son blé en herbe “to spend one's income in advance” is found in Rabelais in 1546, and crier famine sur un tas de blé “to complain in the midst of plenty” is recorded by Furetière in 1690.^[2][3] The tie between corn and wealth led to the slang sense “money” (1850), which became fashionable in the 1960s to 1980s at the expense of fric.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Blet appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1160 – Wace and Benoît use it for a field of cereals and for the grain.^[2]
• 1160–1174 – The form blé is found in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[2]
• 1231 – The eastern form blef is recorded.^[2]
• 1248 – It probably means “wheat” in a Compiègne charter.^[2][3]
• 1273 – The verb bléer “to sow with corn” appears.^[2]
• 1530 – It is used of rye.^[2]
• 1546 – Rabelais writes manger son bled en herbe.^[2]
• 1603 – Blé d'Inde is recorded for maize.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière records crier famine sur un tas de blé.^[2][3]
• 1850 – Slang uses it for money.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wheat, the cereal whose grain is ground into flour for bread: Les paysans ont semé du blé.^[10][9][7]
2. The grain of this plant, threshed from the ear: Le meunier a moulu dix sacs de blé.^[10][7]
3. (chiefly plural) A wheatfield or field of standing corn.^[7][9]
4. In names of other cereals: blé noir buckwheat, (Canada) blé d'Inde maize.^[10][8][3]
5. (slang) Money, dough.^[1][3]

Word family

• blatier
• déblayer
• emblaver
• emblavure
• remblayer
• remblai
• bléer

Related words

• Medieval Latin bladum

Usage notes

Blond comme les blés describes very fair hair,^[10] and fauché comme les blés means penniless.^[1] The figurative phrase être pris comme dans un blé “to be caught” keeps the old sense “field of corn”.^[3][11]

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 q r s t 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 k l m n o p q r s 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. 15/1, 126b
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF