boyau

Forms

boyau m (plural boyaux)^[1] Old French feminine buele (1080), masculine boel and boiel (about 1160); boyau about 1340.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French boiel, inherited from Latin botellus (“small sausage”), which seems to have taken the sense “intestine” only in Medieval Latin (802).^[2][5][6][1] The oldest form, the feminine buele, comes from the neuter plural *botella.^[2] The Latin word is the diminutive of botulus (“blood sausage”), probably not Roman in origin and perhaps borrowed from Oscan.^[2] The French word ousted buille, the outcome of the base word.^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan budel, Catalan budell and Italian budello, whose ⟨u⟩ is of obscure origin.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as the feminine buele in the Chanson de Roland (1080), of a man's bowels: Defors son corps veit gesir la buele “he sees his bowels lying outside his body”.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

All the old forms named the intestines of animals in general.^[2] As in Medieval Latin, the word passed into technical use for a cord made from gut, used in surgery and then in music, as in the familiar racler le boyau “to play a stringed instrument badly” (1623); gut for tennis rackets came in the 20th century.^[2]

By analogy boyau named a winding military trench (1676), then any long narrow passage (1690), a conduit or hose, and since 1904 the tubular tyre of a racing bicycle, made of a single casing.^[2][3][7] The familiar se boyauter “to split one's sides laughing” dates from 1901, and tord-boyaux, a very strong brandy, from 1855.^[2]

Timeline

• 1080 – Buele “bowels” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• c. 1160 – The masculine form boiel is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1340 – The form boyau appears.^[2][8]
• 1623 – Racler le boyau “to scrape the strings” is recorded.^[2]
• 1676 – Used of a military trench.^[2]
• 1690 – Used of a long narrow passage;^[2] boyaudier “gut-dresser” is recorded.^[2]
• 1855 – Tord-boyaux “strong brandy” is recorded.^[2]
• 1904 – Used of a racing-bicycle tyre.^[2][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An intestine of an animal;^[7][9] (familiar, in the plural) a person's guts: rendre tripes et boyaux, to vomit violently.^[7][9]
2. Gut, a cord made from animal intestines, for stringed instruments, tennis rackets or surgical sutures.^[7][1]
3. A long narrow passage;^[7][9][1] (military) a communication trench;^[7][9][1] (mining) a narrow gallery.^[7][9][1]
4. A hose: boyau d'arrosage.^[9][1]
5. A tubular tyre for racing bicycles.^[7][9]

Word family

• boyaudier
• boyauderie
• boyauter
• tord-boyaux
• ébouler
• tournebouler

Related words

• botulisme
• Latin botellus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 464a
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g 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