boire

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bwaʁ/^[1]

Forms

boire^[1] Old French bevre, beivre, boivre; the infinitive boire appears in the early 13th century.^[2][3][1] The stem of the weak forms closed to buv-: nous beuvons was still used in the 16th century beside nous buvons (1562).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French boivre, inherited from Latin bibō (“to drink; to soak up”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} The Latin verb, which almost entirely displaced its synonym pōtō (“to drink”) (see potable, poison), belongs to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *peh₃- (“to drink”), seen in Ancient Greek πίνω (pínō, “to drink”) and Sanskrit “píbati” “he drinks”; its initial ⟨b⟩ comes from assimilation to the inner one.^[2][7][1] The infinitive “boire” was remade in the 13th century after “croire”, whose present “croit” was felt to match “boit”.^[2][7]

Cognate with Italian bere, Occitan beure, Spanish beber, Portuguese beber and Romanian bea.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 10th-century Vie de saint Léger as bevvre; the sense “to swallow a liquid” is there from the start, in the context of poison.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 12th century it is used of the Eucharist, and before the 13th it was used absolutely for drinking too much alcohol (1180–1185).^[2] About 1200 it took the figurative sense “to take in eagerly”, as of words.^[2] Of porous matter it means “to soak up” (le buvard boit l'encre), and of a horse boire l'obstacle is to clear it easily.^[3]

Phrases include boire un coup, boire la tasse “to swallow water while swimming”, boire comme un trou and il y a à boire et à manger “there is good and bad in it”.^[3][7] The infinitive used as a noun is found from the 10th century (bewre).^[5]

Timeline

• 10th century – Bevvre in the Vie de saint Léger.^[3]
• 12th century – Of the Eucharist.^[2]
• 1180–1185 – Absolute boire “to drink to excess”.^[2]
• c. 1200 – Figurative “to take in eagerly”.^[2]
• Early 13th century – The infinitive boire.^[2]
• 1539 – Buvette.^[4]
• 1740 – Pourboire.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To drink, swallow a liquid: boire de l'eau, boire un verre.^[7][1]
2. (absolute) To drink alcohol, especially to excess: il boit.^[2][7]
3. To soak up, absorb: le buvard boit l'encre.^[3]
4. (figurative) To take in eagerly: boire les paroles de quelqu'un.^[2][3]
5. Boire à la santé de: to drink to someone's health.^[7][3]

Noun

1. (dated) Drink: le boire et le manger.^[5]

Word family

• beuverie
• breuvage
• buvable
• buvard
• buvette
• déboire
• fourbu
• imbuvable
• pourboire
• buveur
• boisson
• abreuver

Related words

• biberon
• imbiber
• potable
• Latin bibō

Usage notes

A separate dialect noun boire, on the lower Loire, names a channel linking a river with a side branch; it is recorded in 1343, is of unknown origin, and was only later associated with the verb.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 348a
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ 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