breuvage

Forms

breuvage m (plural breuvages)^[1] Old French bevrage and bovrage (12th century), beverage (late 12th century), buverage;^[2][3][4][5] Middle French bruvaige (1450).^[2][3][4][5] The form breuvage dates from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French bevrage, formed from Old French bevre + -age from beivre or boivre, old infinitives of boire used as nouns.^[6][4][2][1] The verb goes back to Latin bibō (“to drink”).^[7][8] The present form arose by metathesis of the /r/, through brevage,^[5][9] and Wiktionary also sees the influence of abreuver.^[1]

The Old Occitan derivative beuratge was borrowed as Italian beveraggio, Spanish bebraje and Portuguese beberagem.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Littré's earliest quotation, from the 12th-century songs of the Châtelain de Coucy, uses it of Tristan's love potion: “Onques Tristans, cil qui but le brevage, / Plus loiaument n'aima sans repentir” (“Never did Tristan, who drank the potion, love more faithfully without regret”).^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Old French it meant any drink, and Richelet (1680) still gives only “all that one drinks”.^[10][11] From the 17th century it was overtaken by the sense of a drink with healing virtues or meant to have some effect, to poison or to make someone love (Furetière, 1690), which had replaced the general sense in France before the 20th century.^[10][9] In this concrete sense it took over part of the role of the old noun boire.^[9] Littré also records it in veterinary use, for a medicinal draught for horses and cattle, and as a ration of watered wine given to a ship's crew.^[5]

Anglo-French beverage passed into English in the mid-13th century as beverage.^[12][13] In Quebec the old general sense “any drink, alcoholic or not” has survived since Jacques Cartier's account (about 1538), helped by English beverage, especially through bilingual menus; in this use it is mostly a non-alcoholic drink served with a meal, and it is criticized.^{[10][11][9][3]}

Timeline

• 12th century – Bevrage and bovrage are first recorded.^[4][2]
• late 12th century – The form beverage.^[9][3]
• mid-13th century – English borrows beverage from Anglo-French.^[12]
• 1450 – The form bruvaige.^[2][3]
• c. 1538 – Jacques Cartier writes noz breuvaiges estoient tous gellez.^[10][11]
• 16th century – The form breuvage is established.^[2][3]
• 1680 – Richelet defines it as anything one drinks.^[10]
• 1690 – Furetière gives the sense “drink with a special virtue”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) A drink, beverage.^[14][4]
2. A drink prepared for a particular effect, healing, magic or harmful; a potion.^[14][3][4]
3. (Quebec) Any drink, especially a non-alcoholic one such as tea, coffee or juice served with a meal: Elle a commandé un sandwich et un breuvage froid.^[11][10][3]
4. (figurative) Something bitter or hard that one must take in.^[14]
5. (veterinary, dated) A medicinal draught for horses or cattle.^[5]

Related words

• boire
• abreuver
• boisson
• beuverie
• English beverage

Usage notes

Le breuvage des dieux is the nectar.^[4][14] The Quebec use for any drink is criticized as an anglicism, though it continues an old French sense.^[11][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 349b
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e f g Poirier, Claude, et al. (2024), Dictionnaire historique du français québécois, 2nd ed., Trésor de la langue française au Québec, Université Laval, dhfq.org
11. ^ a b c d e Base de données lexicographiques panfrancophone (BDLP), Trésor de la langue française au Québec / Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, bdlp.org
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c d 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