blague

Pronunciation

• IPA: /blaɡ/^[1]

Forms

blague f (plural blagues)^[1] First written blaque (1721); blague from 1826.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Dutch balg (“sheath, pouch; skin”), with the /al/ turned into /la/ because the group /lg/ was rare in popular French.^[2][3][4][5] Rey favours Dutch over another Germanic source because the early sense “a pelican's pouch used as a bag” (1722) points to sailors.^[2] The Dutch word, Middle Dutch balch, is cognate with English belly, Old High German balg, Old Norse belgr (“skin, bag”) and Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌻𐌲𐍃 (balgs, “sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *balgiz (“bag”), properly “something swollen”.^[2] The GLLF instead derives it from a Dutch verb “to swell”, and says the word was first dialectal, for a bladder.^[6]

Littré's derivation from Gaelic was a 19th-century guess.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Recorded in 1721 as blaque, for the small pouch in which smokers keep their tobacco;^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg note that it was first made from a pelican's pouch.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “a made-up story told to fool or amuse people” is recorded in 1809 in army language;^[3][6][8] Rey explains it by the notion of something puffed up, the tobacco pouch seeming swollen with air, and compares bidon.^[2] The Grand Robert sees it rather as a back-formation from blaguer, recorded in 1808.^[4][3] Balzac's novels show the word spreading among Paris office clerks, and, from there to all of society.^[2]

It entered common phrases: blague à part (1856), the more popular blague dans le coin (1861) and the exclamation sans blague ! (1870).^[2] In the middle of the 20th century it came to mean a careless mistake as well as a joke or prank.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1721 – Blaque, a tobacco pouch.^[2][3]
• 1722 – A pelican's pouch.^[2]
• 1808 – The verb blaguer.^[3][2]
• 1809 – “A tall story”, in army slang.^[3][6]
• 1826 – The spelling blague.^[2]
• 1856 – Blague à part.^[2]
• 1870 – Sans blague !^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small pouch in which smokers keep their tobacco: blague à tabac.^[8][9]
2. (familiar) A made-up story one tries to make people believe; a fib.^[8][10]
3. (familiar) A joke; a prank: faire une sale blague à quelqu'un.^[8][9]
4. (familiar) A careless blunder.^[8][9]
5. Blague à part, blague dans le coin: joking apart, sans blague !: no kidding!^[8][9]

Word family

• blaguer
• blagueur

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 p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 34a
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)