Etymologically
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bouteille

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /bu.tɛj/[1]

Forms

bouteille f (plural bouteilles)[1] Old French botele (1160–70), boteille; masculine botel, boutiaus.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French boteille, inherited from Vulgar Latin *butticula (“buticula”, attested in the Carolingian period), a diminutive of Late Latin buttis (“cask, wineskin”) (6th century), see botte.[2][5][6][1][7] The origin of “buttis” is doubtful; it may be borrowed from Ancient Greek βοῦττις (boûttis, “truncated cone-shaped vessel”), itself perhaps a loanword.[2] Pierre Guiraud linked it to a Romance root “*boutt-” for a swelling.[6]

The sense “glass vessel” seems to have arisen in northern Gaul (in the 8th–9th centuries “buticula” is glossed “flasca”) and spread south, where people used jugs and wineskins: Old Occitan botelha meant both, and Spanish botija is a jug.[2][5] Italian bottiglia, Spanish botella and English bottle come from French.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thomas's Tristan (about 1160) has botele for a vessel with a narrow neck for liquids.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The bottle was made of leather or metal as well as glass in the Middle Ages: inventories of the 14th century list bouteilles de cuir and d'argent.[4] In the 16th century the word also meant a bubble (Robert Estienne, 1538, Amyot), a sense still in the Académie of 1694.[8][3] Aimer la bouteille “to like a drink” goes back to the 17th century, and avoir de la bouteille “to have experience”, like a wine that has aged, is familiar.[9][1] embouteiller “to bottle” took its figurative sense “to jam (traffic)” in the late 19th century.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1160 – Botele, Thomas's Tristan.[3]
  • 12th century – The derivative bouteiller “cupbearer”.[5]
  • 1538 – “Bubble”, Robert Estienne.[3]
  • 1864 – Embouteiller, embouteillage.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A bottle: une bouteille de vin, mettre en bouteille, bière en bouteille.[9][1]
  2. A bottle's contents: boire une bouteille.[9]
  3. (figurative) Drink, alcohol: aimer la bouteille.[1][9]
  4. (familiar) Avoir de la bouteille: to have experience, (of wine) to have aged.[1][9]
  5. A cylinder (of gas): bouteille de gaz, bouteille d'oxygène.[9]

Word family

  • bouteiller
  • embouteiller
  • embouteillage
  • ouvre-bouteille
  • demi-bouteille

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 660a
  8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert