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brocher

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Etymology and origin of the French word brocher

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1080 Chanson de Roland More words from the 11th century
Ultimate origin
Latin broccus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Old French broche
English brooch
French brocher
Derivations
From the same root
English broach ← broche

Pronunciation

Forms

brocher[1] Old French brochier, also written broichier, broissier, broçant (present participle), and Anglo-Norman broger, broucher.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French brochier, from Old French broche (“pointed object, spit”), which is recorded slightly later than the verb.[4][5][6][1] The noun is from Vulgar Latin brocca, the feminine of Latin broccus (“projecting, pointed”) used as a noun.[6][1] Meyer-Lübke glosses the Latin adjective “with projecting teeth”.[7] All its senses go back to pricking with a point.[2][6]

Cognate with Occitan brocar, brochar and Italian broccare.[2] In Old French the ⟨ch⟩ was often replaced by ⟨ss⟩, probably by confusion with brosse.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1080) it means “to spur” a horse: Son cheval broche “he spurs his horse”.[2][8][4] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1155, meaning “to prick, to spur”.[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to spur” lasted until 1694.[4] From the 13th century the verb was specialised in weaving, for passing threads over the plain ground of a cloth to form a raised pattern.[4][9][6] By analogy the heraldic phrase brochant sur le tout (after 1458 in Rey, the 17th century in Picoche) describes a charge crossing the shield over other charges, and figuratively means “on top of all that”.[4][6][2]

The figurative sense “to do something in haste, carelessly” (1680 in Rey and the GLLF, 1610 in the Petit Robert) probably came from the idea of spurring on.[4][8][9] Farriers used it for driving nails into a horse's hoof (probably 15th century).[4] In bookbinding it has meant since 1718 sewing and gluing a book's gatherings into a paper cover, the source of brochure in that sense.[4][9][6] In Quebec French, after broche “staple”, it means “to staple”.[4]

Timeline

  • 1080 – Brocher “to spur” appears in the Chanson de Roland.[8][5][2]
  • 1155 – First Anglo-Norman record.[3]
  • 13th century – The weaving sense appears.[9][4][6]
  • after 1458 – Brochant sur le tout is recorded in heraldry.[4]
  • 1680 – Richelet records the sense “to do hastily”.[8][4]
  • 1694 – The sense “to spur” falls out of use.[4]
  • 1718 – The bookbinding sense is recorded.[9][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (bookbinding) To stitch and glue the gatherings of a book into a paper cover: un livre broché.[9][10][11]
  2. (weaving) To brocade: to weave raised patterns into a cloth with silk, gold or silver threads.[9][12][1]
  3. (heraldry) Brochant sur le tout: of a charge, crossing the shield over the others, (figurative, literary) on top of all that, into the bargain.[2][9][11]
  4. (dated, figurative) To do or write hastily and carelessly, to bâcler: il a broché son article en une heure.[9][10]
  5. (obsolete) To spur a horse.[9][4]
  6. (technical) To drive nails into the hoof of a horse being shod.[9][4]
  7. (technical) To machine a hole or profile in a metal part with a broach.[9]
  8. (Quebec) To staple.[4]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  3. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b 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
  11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  12. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Brocher.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/brocher. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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