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Etymology and origin of the French word calice

calice1 chalice

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1131 Couronnement de Louis
Borrowed from
Latin calix
Ultimate origin
Latin calix
Etymology tree of calice1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin calix
French calice
From the same root · calice1
English chalice ← calix

Pronunciation

Forms

calice m (plural calices)[1] Old French chalice, caliz, galice and calisse.[2][3] Anglo-Norman spellings include chalis, calis and chaleis.[4]

Etymology

The word for the chalice is borrowed from Latin calix (“cup, drinking vessel”),[5][3][6][7] found as chalice about 1180, the TLFi's first record,[5][3] and as galice earlier in the 12th century.[2][8] In Christian Latin the word stood for the passion of Christ, for his blood and for the eucharistic cup.[5][3] Wiktionary calls the Old French form inherited, beside the borrowed modern word.[1]

The Romans took the Latin word for a loan from Ancient Greek κύλιξ (kúlix, “drinking cup”), and Littré and Wiktionary derive it from that word;[3][2][1] Rey thinks it may rather be a native Latin word of Indo-European origin, related to the Greek word and to κάλυξ (kálux) (see calice2).[3] Bloch and Wartburg also give the Latin words for cup and calyx the same origin.[6]

Cognate with Old Occitan calitz, Spanish cáliz and Italian calice.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Marie de France's lay Yonec (about 1180) the chalice is the cup from which wine is drunk; the TLFi files it as the first record of the liturgical vessel.[5][3] Littré quotes still older Old French forms, galice in the Couronnement de Louis and caliz in a psalter, both 12th century,[2] and the GLLF dates the Couronnement about 1131.[8]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the concrete sense “drinking vessel” and soon specialized in the vocabulary of the liturgy, as the cup in which the wine is consecrated at Mass.[3] It was later taken up again, after the Greek, as a term for the drinking cups of antiquity.[3][5]

From 1660, in the language of devotion, it took the figurative sense “cruel ordeal”, with reference to Christ's passion (le calice de la passion).[3][5] This gave the phrase boire le calice jusqu'à la lie “to drink the cup to the dregs” (1680), and in everyday language il faut avaler ce calice (Madame de Sévigné, 1680).[3][5] Bloch and Wartburg trace these phrases to the Bible,[6] and the BHVF finds avaler ce calice as early as 1615.[9]

The English word chalice came from the Anglo-Norman and Old French form chalice in the early 14th century.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 1131 – Galice in the Couronnement de Louis, as the GLLF dates it.[2][8]
  • c. 1180 – Chalice in Marie de France's Yonec.[5][3]
  • 1615 – Avaler ce calice “to swallow this cup” is recorded.[9]
  • 1660 – Bossuet uses le calice de la passion in a mystical sense.[5][3]
  • 1680 – Madame de Sévigné writes il faut avaler ce calice, in ordinary language.[5]
  • 1680 – Boire le calice jusqu'à la lie is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Catholic liturgy) The chalice, the sacred cup in which the wine is consecrated at Mass.[11][5]
  2. (figurative, literary) A bitter ordeal: calice d'amertume, boire le calice jusqu'à la lie “to drink the cup to the dregs”.[11][12]
  3. (antiquity) A drinking cup of the ancient Greeks and Romans.[5][8]

calice2 calyx

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1575 Ambroise Paré
Borrowed from
Latin calyx
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek κάλυξ
Etymology tree of calice2
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek κάλυξ (kálux)
Latin calyx
English calyx
French calice
The journey of calice2

Pronunciation

Forms

calice m (plural calices)[1]

Etymology

The word for the calyx is borrowed from Latin calyx (“outer covering of a flower”), which is from Ancient Greek κάλυξ (kálux), a word of the same sense found from Herodotus on.[5][3][6] The ⟨i⟩ in place of ⟨y⟩ comes from calice1, the word for the chalice: the two were confused, the calyx being felt as a metaphor of the cup.[3][13][6] Littré derives the Greek word from καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover, hide”),[2] while Rey notes its likeness to κύλιξ (kúlix) and to Latin calix (“cup”), to which it may be related.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ambroise Paré lists calices among the parts of plants in 1575: Feuilles, fleurs, calices, espis “leaves, flowers, calyxes, ears”.[5][13] Bloch and Wartburg date the botanical sense 1549.[6]

Semantic evolution

In Greek the word had named various coverings (of seeds and flowers, a pod), a flower bud in poetry, and a woman's ornament.[3] In French it is the outer envelope of the flower, made of the sepals.[3][11] By likeness of shape it passed into anatomy, for the calyces of the kidney (19th century, Landais 1843), and into architecture, for the carved leaves of Corinthian capitals.[3]

Timeline

  • 1549 – First record in botany, according to Bloch and Wartburg.[6]
  • 1575 – Ambroise Paré lists calices among the parts of plants.[5]
  • 1843 – Landais records the anatomical calices du rein.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (botany) The calyx, the outer part of the perianth, formed by the sepals.[11][12]
  2. (anatomy) Calices du rein: the cup-shaped ducts that collect urine in the kidney.[11][3]
  3. (architecture) The carved leaves of a Corinthian capital.[3]

Word family

  • calicinal
  • caliciforme

Usage notes

In Quebec French calice, like other words of the Church (ciboire, tabernacle), is used as an oath (a sacre); in familiar writing it is spelled calisse, with the variants caline and calique, and it gave a familiar verb calisser “to give, throw, leave, throw out”, with se calisser de “not to care about”.[3] Wiktionary treats the interjection calice as a softened form of câlisse.[1] An interjection calice! of surprise is also used in New Caledonia;[3] Rey notes that the variants alice! and calisson! heard there argue against linking it to the Quebec oath.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 r s t u v w x y z Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 95a
  8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  11. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  13. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Calice.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/calice. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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