calibre

Forms

calibre m (plural calibres)^[1] Also written qualibre in the 16th and early 17th centuries.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Arabic قَالِب (qālib, “mould for casting metal, shoemaker's last”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Arabic word meant a mould for pouring metal in the 9th century and a shoemaker's last by the early 12th.^[3][7] It was itself taken from Ancient Greek καλόπους (kalópous, “wooden last for making shoes”), a compound of κᾶλον (kâlon, “wood”) and πούς (poús, “foot”).^[3][7]

Rey thinks a go-between in Italian calibro very doubtful, since that word is not found before the 17th century, and the same holds for Spanish calibre (1583, calibio);^[7] Bloch and Wartburg take the Italian and Spanish words, and German Kaliber, from French.^[5] Littré still gave the Spanish and Italian words as the immediate source, and the Petit Robert names the Italian word.^[2][8] Etymonline reports a minority view that the word was formed in French from Medieval Latin qua libra (“of what weight”), first put forward in the 19th century.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1478, in the statutes of the plasterers of Rouen.^[3][10] Before 1571 Carloix uses it of the bore of a cannon, in douze canons, de calibre d'empereur “twelve cannons of the emperor's calibre”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

From the idea of size and capacity the word took the figurative sense “importance, standing” (1548), familiar in n'être pas du même calibre (1611), “not to think alike”.^[3][7] By 1636 it also meant the size of a projectile or of any round or cylindrical object.^[3][10]

In the 17th century it passed by metonymy to the instrument for checking the bore of a weapon (1690) and to the template on which the outline of a piece to be made is drawn (1694).^[3][7] It then named a firearm by its bore (un calibre 12) and, in familiar French, any firearm (1935).^[7]

English took it from French in the 1580s for the bore of a gun, after a figurative “degree of merit or importance” in the 1560s.^[9]

Timeline

• 1478 – First record, in the statutes of the plasterers of Rouen.^[3][5]
• 1548 – Noël du Fail uses it figuratively for “importance”.^[3][7]
• 1552 – The verb calibrer appears, as the participle calibré.^[5][7]
• 1560s – English takes the figurative sense.^[9]
• before 1571 – Carloix uses it of the bore of a cannon.^[3][2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records n'être pas du même calibre.^[3]
• 1636 – Monet uses it for the size of a projectile.^[3][10]
• 1690 – Furetière records the gauge for checking a weapon's bore.^[3][10]
• 1694 – Thomas Corneille records the sense “template”.^[3]
• 1935 – Familiar calibre “firearm”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The inside diameter of a tube or pipe, and especially the bore of a firearm: un fusil de petit calibre.^[8][10][11]
2. The size of a projectile: une balle de petit calibre.^[8][10]
3. The size of a round object: des pommes de calibres différents.^[8][10]
4. A gauge for checking the dimensions of mechanical parts or the bore of a weapon.^[8][10]
5. A profile or template used as a guide for cutting or shaping materials.^[8][3]
6. (figurative, dated) Importance or stature of a person.^[8][7]
7. (slang) A firearm, a gun.^[11][7]

Word family

• calibrer
• calibrage

Related words

• Arabic قَالِب (qālib)
• English calibre

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 l m n o p q 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 19, 82b
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ 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 j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)