céréale

Forms

céréale f (plural céréales)^[1] Middle French cereal (adjective, 16th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cereālis (“of Ceres; of grain”),^[2][3][4][5] the adjective of Cerēs, the goddess of harvests,^[2][4][5] whose name, Rey explains, is an old neuter noun meaning “growth”, from the same Indo-European root as croître and créer.^[3] The Latin adjective was already used by metonymy for “relating to grain” in Virgil's Georgics.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Peletier du Mans uses the adjective cereal “of Ceres” in the middle of the 16th century, in his translation of the first book of Virgil's Georgics;^[2][6] the form is found only in that century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Trévoux dictionary of 1704 has the feminine plural Ceréales for festivals in honour of Ceres.^[2][3] During the Revolution the adjective was applied to plants with floury grains used as food (1792, the Encyclopédie méthodique), but this use remained rare;^[3][2] only the noun, les céréales (recorded by the Académie in 1835), is really alive.^[3][2][5] By metonymy it also names the edible grains alone and, under the influence of English cereal, the breakfast flakes.^[3][7]

The compound céréaliculture (1929) and the adjective céréalier (1951), also a noun for a grain grower, are recent.^[3][2] English cereal, first an adjective (1818) and a noun from 1832, comes from the French word.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – Peletier du Mans has cereal “of Ceres”.^[2][6]
• 1704 – Ceréales “festivals of Ceres” in the Trévoux dictionary.^[2]
• 1792 – Used of food grain plants in the Encyclopédie méthodique.^[2][6]
• 1818 – English cereal as an adjective.^[8]
• 1835 – The Académie records the noun.^[2][5]
• 1929 – Céréaliculture appears.^[2][3]
• 1951 – Céréalier appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cereal, a plant whose grains, often ground into flour, feed people and domestic animals, such as wheat, oats, rice or maize.^[7][6][1]
2. The grain of such a plant: du pain aux céréales.^[7][1]
3. (in the plural) Breakfast cereal flakes: un bol de céréales.^[7][3]

Adjective

1. (dated, rare) Of plants, producing grain used as food: plantes céréales.^[2][6]

Word family

• céréalier
• céréaliculture

Related words

• Cérès
• Latin Cerēs
• English cereal

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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
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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com