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
- To drink, swallow a liquid: boire de l'eau, boire un verre.[7][1]
- (absolute) To drink alcohol, especially to excess: il boit.[2][7]
- To soak up, absorb: le buvard boit l'encre.[3]
- (figurative) To take in eagerly: boire les paroles de quelqu'un.[2][3]
- Boire à la santé de: to drink to someone's health.[7][3]
Noun
- (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
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
- ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 348a
- ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
- ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
- ^ 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