bock

Forms

bock m (plural bocks)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Bock (“strong Bavarian beer”), a shortening of Bockbier.^[2][3][4][5] The German name goes back to Einbeckisch Bier (16th century), the beer of Einbeck or Eimbeck, a small town in Lower Saxony that exported its famous, very hoppy beer from the 14th century.^[2][3][6][7] The beer was brewed in Bavaria from the early 17th century, and there, with a change of /e/ to /o/ in the second syllable, the name became ampokhisch pier (Munich, 1630), Aimbock and Oambock.^[6][7][2] In the 19th century it was cut down to its present form, the first syllable being taken for the indefinite article ein, pronounced ⟨oan⟩ in Bavaria.^[2][3][6] The GLLF adds that outside Bavaria the name was understood as “a billy-goat beer”,^[8] and Etymonline also notes the popular link with the German word for a goat.^[9]

Littré, citing the Courrier de Vaugelas of 1875, saw a misunderstanding: the Germans called the new, heady beer “goat beer”, and the French took the word for the name of a measure of beer.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is in the Goncourts' Journal (1862), en buvant du bock, where the word still means the Bavarian beer itself.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg, the GLLF and the Petit Robert date the Goncourts' use to 1855.^[4][8][11]

Semantic evolution

The borrowed sense “Bavarian beer” soon gave way to the metonymic sense “beer glass with a handle holding about a quarter of a litre”, and its contents (1866).^[3][2][5] In cafés it later named, as opposed to the demi, a smaller glass of beer.^[3][11] The word grew old-fashioned after 1945, when une bière replaced it in everyday use while demi stayed common.^[3]

By likeness, medicine used bock before 1914 for a metal or plastic container used for injections and enemas.^[2][3] In slang, avoir du bock “to be lucky” (about 1920) goes back to a short-lived sense “backside” (1901), in the series of avoir du bol and avoir du pot;^[3] Rey thinks it was at first a shortening of bocal.^[3] Maupassant used the derivative bockeur, a regular beer drinker in a brasserie, in 1884.^[2] English took the word as bock in 1856.^[9]

Timeline

• 1855 – Bloch and Wartburg's date for the Goncourts' use.^[4]
• 1862 – The Goncourts' Journal uses it of Bavarian beer.^[2]
• 1866 – P. Avenel's Les Calicots uses it of a glass of beer.^[2]
• 1875 – The Courrier de Vaugelas calls it a recent import from Germany.^[10]
• 1884 – Maupassant uses the derivative bockeur.^[2]
• 1901 – Slang sense “backside”.^[3]
• before 1914 – A surgical instruments catalogue uses it of an injection container.^[2]
• c. 1920 – Avoir du bock “to be lucky”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A beer mug with a handle, holding about a quarter of a litre; the beer it holds: commander un bock.^{[11][2][12][1]}
2. A small beer glass on a stem, holding about an eighth of a litre.^[11]
3. In Germany, a strong, very stable beer.^[12]
4. (medicine) A container with a long tube ending in a cannula, used for injections and enemas.^{[11][2][12][8]}

Word family

• bockeur

Related words

• sous-bock
• German Bockbier
• English bock

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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
7. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2002), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 24th ed., Berlin / New York: De Gruyter
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)