blocage

Forms

blocage m (plural blocages)^[1] Middle French bloccage (1547), also bloccaille ou bloccage in Estienne (1549).^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from French bloquer + -age.^[2][3][4][1] Bloquer is derived from bloc,^[5][6] which is borrowed from Middle Dutch bloc (“felled tree trunk”) or from Middle High German block (“trunk, block”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jean Martin first used it in 1547, spelled bloccage, as an architectural term for the mass of rubble that fills the space between the two faces of a wall.^[2][7][4]

Semantic evolution

In printing it named, from 1762, the turned letters set provisionally in place of missing ones.^[2][8] It was then taken up as the noun of bloquer “to stop, block”: of a billiard ball in 1845^[2][7] and of brakes clamped tight in 1907.^[2][7] The economic use blocage des prix, the freezing of prices, is recorded from 1945 in Raymond Aron.^[7][9] It is also used in medicine and in psychology for a sudden inability to function or to go on learning, in connection with être bloqué.^[7][10]

The technical adjective antiblocage (1974) is a calque of English antiblocking system.^[7]

Timeline

• 1547 – Jean Martin uses bloccage in architecture.^[2][7]
• 1549 – Estienne records bloccaille ou bloccage.^[2]
• 1762 – The Académie records the printing sense.^[2]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records its use in billiards.^[2][7]
• 1907 – Used of brakes locked tight.^[2][7]
• 1945 – Blocage des prix is found in Raymond Aron.^[7][9]
• 1974 – Antiblocage is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The action of blocking or stopping something, or the state of being blocked: le blocage des roues.^[2][11][10]
2. (sport) The stopping and holding of the ball.^[11][4]
3. (economics) A freeze on prices, wages or credit: blocage des salaires.^[11][4]
4. A sudden stop in the working of an organ or mechanism.^[4]
5. (psychology) A mental block, an inability to react or go on learning.^[11][10]
6. (building) rubble or small stones used to fill the space between the faces of a wall or the foundations.^[11][10][8]
7. (printing, dated) Turned letters standing in for missing ones.^[8]

Word family

• antiblocage

Related words

• bloquer
• déblocage
• bloc
• blocaille
• blocus

Usage notes

In building, blocage and blocaille have long been used side by side for rubble filling: the Académie in 1835 admits both, and in 1932 refers blocaille to blocage.^[2]

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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert