cahier

Forms

cahier m (plural cahiers)^[1] Old French quaer, caer and cayer; the spelling cahier is found from 1559.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French quaer, inherited from Vulgar Latin *quaternum, a form built on Latin quaternī (“four each, by fours”), the distributive plural derived from quattuor (“four”).^[3][2][5] Already in imperial times this form became quadernum under the influence of quadrum (“square”).^[3][2] The sense “gathering of four sheets” is paralleled by the Latin derivative quaterniō, recorded from the 4th century for a quire of four leaves.^[3][2][4] In French the ending was replaced by the suffix -ier, and the ⟨h⟩ only marks the hiatus between the two vowels.^[3]

Littré still called the origin obscure and wondered whether a Latin quaternarium lay behind it.^[6] Cognate with Italian quaderno, Spanish cuaderno, Portuguese caderno and Old Occitan cazern.^[7][4] The same Latin word gave caserne through Old Occitan, and carnet is a diminutive of the Old Occitan form.^[1][2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie (late 12th century) speaks of treis quaers de parchemin “three quires of parchment”: a gathering of sheets of parchment or paper, at first four of them.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The link with the number four was soon lost, and the word named any set of sheets put together.^[2] In printing it is the group of pages that one folded sheet gives a book, recorded in 1549 and in Cotgrave in 1611.^[2][3][8]

From 1559, after what such a document was used for, it also meant a written statement or memorandum.^[3][2] This sense lives on in administrative phrases such as cahier des charges and in the cahiers of grievances that the orders of the kingdom once addressed to the sovereign.^[2][6] As a title, usually in the plural, it names periodicals such as Péguy's Cahiers de la quinzaine.^[2]

Today the commonest sense is a book of blank pages for writing, especially at school.^[2] English borrowed cahier about 1845.^[9]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – Quaer “quire of parchment” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[3]
• 1283 – The form cayer is recorded.^[3][2]
• 1549 – Used in printing for the gathering of pages from one sheet.^[2]
• 1559 – The spelling cahier and the sense “memorandum”.^[3][2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the printing sense.^[3]
• c. 1845 – English borrows the word.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A notebook or exercise book: sheets of paper sewn or stapled together under a cover, used for writing: cahier de brouillon, cahier d'écolier.^[10][8]
2. (printing) A folded printed sheet forming one section of a book, a quire or signature.^[3][8][1]
3. Cahier des charges: the list of terms and conditions of a contract or public tender, a specification.^[6][1]
4. (history) A written statement presented by a body of the state to the sovereign, as in cahier de doléances.^[6]
5. Cahier de textes: the book in which a pupil notes the homework set.^[10][1]

Related words

• carnet
• caserne
• quatre
• Latin quaternī

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1437b
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert