broyer

Forms

broyer^[1] Old French past participle breied (about 1100), breier, brier and broier (1250–1300); the spelling broyer appears in 1538.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French breier, brier,^[1][3] of Germanic origin; the origin is not settled.^[3][4][2] The commonest view makes it borrowed from Frankish *brekan (“to break”),^[5][6][1][7] from Proto-Germanic *brekaną.^[1] The same Germanic verb is found in Old Occitan bregar, the dialects of northern Italy, Spanish bregar and Catalan bregar.^[2][5]

Rey gives two explanations.^[2] In the first, the French verb comes from Frankish, which met in the south with Gothic *brikan, the Provençal verb would come from these, Spanish and Catalan would have borrowed it from Provençal, and the north Italian forms would come straight from Gothic.^[2] In the second, all the Romance words come from one Germanic verb of that form, which reached French rather late.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg think that the sense “to break hemp or flax”, now the main one in the Gallo-Romance dialects, grew up after the borrowing.^[5]

The Germanic verb is cognate with Old High German brehhan, German brechen, Old Saxon brekan and Old English brecan, the source of the English word break;^[2][1] it goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”), the root of Latin frangō.^[2][1]

Littré, who found the origin unknown, suggested a link with Old French brai (“mud”), with the Provençal verb meaning “to rub” or with the Gothic verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first known indirectly, through the participle breied used as an adjective about 1100, in a Judeo-French text.^[2][3] Rey says its first sense, “to reduce to pieces, powder or paste”, belonged to baking, and survives in the regional pain brié.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It spread into general use from 1180–1200,^[2][5] and then into trades: the breaking of hemp stalks (before 1463, broyer du chanvre) and the grinding of colours for painting.^[2][4] From the colour-grinders' phrase came the figurative broyer du noir “to brood over dark thoughts” (1756).^[2][6]

It took the figurative senses “to weigh heavily on, to crush” in 1813 and “to destroy” in 1835 (broyer le cœur de quelqu'un).^[2] Recent slang uses it for crushing an opponent in a fight or in sport.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The participle breied is recorded in Judeo-French.^[2][3]
• 1180–1200 – The verb passes into general use.^[2][5]
• 1223 – The noun broie is recorded.^[2]
• 1250–1300 – The form broier appears.^[2][3]
• 1422 – Broyeur is recorded.^[5][2]
• Before 1463 – Broyer du chanvre “to break hemp”.^[2]
• 1538 – The spelling broyer.^[2]
• 1756 – Broyer du noir is recorded.^[2]
• 1813 – Figurative sense “to crush, weigh down”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To reduce to tiny fragments, powder or paste by pressure or blows; to grind, to crush: broyer du poivre.^[4][9][10]
2. (technical) To break the stems of hemp or flax to free the fibre, or to grind pigments: broyer les couleurs.^[4][10]
3. To crush or mangle a body or limb, as in an accident: La machine lui a broyé la main.^[6][11]
4. (figurative) To crush, overwhelm or destroy someone.^[2][11]
5. Broyer du noir: to brood, to give way to gloomy thoughts.^[4][10][6]
6. (slang, sports) To crush or overpower an opponent.^[1]

Word family

• broyeur
• broie
• broiement
• broyage

Related words

• brèche
• Frankish *brekan
• English break

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 t u v w x Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 266a
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ 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