brouiller

Forms

brouiller^[1] Old French broueillier, with three syllables.^[2][3] Tobler–Lommatzsch lists it as bröoillier and Godefroy as brouillier.^[4] The Livre des métiers of the 13th century spells it brooueiller.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French broueillier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *brodiculō, a derivative of *brodicō, a verb postulated from the Bergamasque dialect word Lombard brodigar (“to soil”).^{[3][6][7][8][9]} This goes back to a Germanic word for broth, Proto-Germanic *bruþą (“stock, broth”), seen also in brouet.^[3][1][7] Rey holds that only this etymon accounts for the three-syllable Old French form.^[3] Wiktionary gives the intermediate step as Late Latin brodium (“broth, stew, mixture”).^[1]

Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF instead derive it within French from Old French brou “broth”, which had come to mean “mud, froth” in many northern dialects, with the ending of verbs such as fouiller, mouiller and souiller;^[2][10] Rey thinks this explanation should be set aside.^[3] In the 19th century Littré, after Diez, connected it with breuil and Old Occitan bruelhar (“to bud”), while Scheler thought of German brudeln (“to bubble”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from 1219.^[3][6] The Académie gives its first sense as “to spoil, damage”,^[8] and Bloch and Wartburg as “to mix”;^[2] in the 13th-century Livre des métiers Paris fishmongers are forbidden to brooueiller salted fish such as cod and herring.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old French it was used figuratively for “to mix, make confused”; it meant “to alter” before settling, in 1268–1271, on “to mix while disarranging”.^[3] With a concrete object that sense died out after the classical period, except in cooking, in œufs brouillés “scrambled eggs” (1607), and in card play, brouiller les cartes (1611).^[3] Today it is mostly used figuratively, “to create confusion by upsetting an order”, as in brouiller les cartes and brouiller les pistes.^[3][8] From “to mix” came other senses such as “to smear, dirty” and “to scribble”, the source of brouillon “rough draft”.^[2]

The sense “to make cloudy” (1346–1407) now refers less to stirring up a liquid than to dimming the sight, a surface, the weather, or the clarity of speech and ideas (15th–16th centuries).^[3] From “to sow trouble” it passed, with a person as object, to “to set at odds” (about 1470), a use still common, also in the pronominal and the passive.^[3] In the 20th century it took on the sense “to jam a radio transmission”, with the derivative brouillage.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1219 – First record.^[3][6]
• 13th century – Brooueiller is used of fishmongers' practices in the Livre des métiers.^[5]
• 1268–1271 – Sense “to mix while disarranging”.^[3]
• 1346–1407 – Sense “to make cloudy, unclear”.^[3]
• c. 1470 – Sense “to set (people) at odds”.^[3]
• 1549 – The derivatives brouillon and débrouiller are recorded.^[2]
• 1607 – Œufs brouillés “scrambled eggs”.^[3]
• 1611 – Brouiller les cartes in its literal sense.^[3]
• 1617 – The noun brouille “quarrel” is recorded.^[2]
• 1948 – brouillage “jamming” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To mix up, jumble, put in disorder: brouiller des fiches; figuratively brouiller les cartes, brouiller les pistes, to confuse matters or cover one's tracks.^[7][8][11]
2. To scramble eggs;^[7][1] œufs brouillés, scrambled eggs.^[7][1]
3. To make cloudy or turbid by stirring: brouiller du vin.^[10][11]
4. To blur, dim: tears blur the eyes, mist blurs a pair of glasses.^[7][12]
5. To jam a radio broadcast or scramble a message.^[7][12][1]
6. (figurative) To confuse (the mind, ideas).^[7][12]
7. To set at odds, cause a falling-out between people;^[12][11] in the passive, les deux sœurs sont brouillées, the two sisters have fallen out.^[12][12][11]
8. (familiar) Être brouillé avec quelque chose: to have trouble understanding or remembering something.^[11][12]
9. (pronominal) Se brouiller: of the sky or weather, to cloud over, of the sight or thoughts, to become blurred or muddled, and with avec, to fall out with someone.^[7][12][1]

Word family

• brouillage
• brouille
• brouillon
• débrouiller
• embrouiller
• brouillerie
• débrouillard
• embrouillement

Related words

• brouet

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
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. ^ a b c d Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
9. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 294b
10. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b c d e 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
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)