bruyère

Forms

bruyère f (plural bruyères)^[1] Old French bruiere;^[2][1] bruere is still found in the 16th century.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French bruiere, inherited from Vulgar Latin *brūcāria, a derivative of Late Latin brūcus (“heather”), a word recorded in a 10th-century gloss.^[3][4][5][6] Wiktionary gives the Medieval Latin form as brūgāria.^[1] The Latin word is generally traced to Gaulish *brūko,^[7][3][4] a form reconstructed from Old Irish fróech, Welsh grug, Cornish grug and Breton brug, all going back to Proto-Celtic *vroikos.^[3][7] The Grand Robert gives the Gaulish origin as possible only.^[4]

The simple word survives in southern French dialects, as Gascon bruga “heather thicket”,^[3][7] and Old Occitan had bruc.^[7] Cognate with Catalan bruguera and Italian brughiera.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1174, in Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket, for land where heather grows, a heath:^[3][4][6] De porcs et de berbiz voidreient la bruiere “they would clear the heath of pigs and sheep”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the land where the small purple-flowered plants grow; this sense is still alive, but by about 1180 it was overtaken by the name of the plant itself, a development like that of fougère.^[3][7] The name of the plant in turn came to stand for its root, used for pipes, and again for ground planted with heather, as in terre de bruyère (1835) and coq de bruyère.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 1174 – First record, in Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, meaning a heath.^[3][4][6]
• c. 1180 – First used for the plant.^[3]
• 1803 – The adjective bruyéreux is recorded.^[3]
• 1835 – Terre de bruyère is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. heather, a shrub of heaths and moors with small flowers ranging from white to purple; also its root: une pipe de bruyère.^[8][9]
2. A place where heather grows, a heath or moor.^[8][9]
3. Terre de bruyère: a light, acid soil formed from decayed heather, used for growing plants that dislike lime.^[8][9]
4. Coq de bruyère: the capercaillie or tétras.^[6][8]

Word family

• bruyéreux
• coq de bruyère

Related words

• Late Latin brūcus

Usage notes

The Robert dictionaries give both [bʀyjɛʀ] and [bʀɥijɛʀ];^[8][4] Littré recommends the first and notes that many people say the second.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 557b
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c 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