canne

Forms

canne f (plural cannes)^[1] Old French cane (13th century) and kanne (14th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan cana (“reed, tube”), from Latin canna (“reed, tube”).^[4][5][6][3] The TLFi derives it straight from the Latin word, while Rey thinks that some of its senses must have come through Provençal, which had them first.^[2][7][8] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), a word of Eastern (Semitic) origin.^[4][6][7] Wiktionary traces it to Akkadian qanû (“reed”).^[1]

Cognate with Catalan canya and Spanish caña.^[3] The same Latin word gave canal and, through a Greek derivative, canon².^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form canne is first recorded in Alexandre de Paris's Roman d'Alexandre (1180–1190) for the shaft of a lance.^[2][7] The sense “reed” is found about 1250 in Gossuin de Metz's Image du monde.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Several Old French senses grew from the idea of a hollow tube: a lance shaft, the backbone (12th century, in Old Picard), the windpipe (1380) and a measure of length (before 1266); all have gone out of use.^[7][2] The original sense “reed” lasted, notably in canne à sucre (1721, earlier canne de sucre, about 1560).^[7] By metonymy the word named the wood of reeds used for flutes and furniture (Joinville, 1305).^[7][2]

A use of the light wood gave the sense “walking stick” (Hulsius, 1596), the main sense in the 19th and 20th centuries.^[2][7] Casser sa canne meant “to break one's ban” (1852), then “to die”.^[7] By analogy the word named a fishing rod, in canne à pêche (1636), and the glassblower's blowpipe (1704); later it named the stick used in a fencing-like combat sport (1882) and a golf club (1933).^[7][2] Familiarly, cannes are legs (before 1885).^[7][9]

In the sugar-growing regions canne alone means sugar cane, and in African and Malagasy French it also names another grass with a sweet pith.^[7]

Timeline

• 1180–1190 – Canne is used for a lance shaft in the Roman d'Alexandre.^[2][7]
• before 1266 – A measure of length in the Assises de Jérusalem.^[2][3]
• c. 1250 – Used for a reed by Gossuin de Metz.^[2][7]
• 1305 – Joinville writes of reeds cut to make flutes.^[2][3]
• 1380 – Used for the windpipe.^[2][7]
• c. 1560 – Canne de sucre is recorded.^[7]
• 1596 – Hulsius records the walking stick.^[2][7]
• 1636 – Canne à pêche is recorded.^[7][9]
• 1704 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the glassblower's pipe.^[2]
• 1721 – Canne à sucre replaces canne de sucre.^[7]
• before 1885 – Cannes is used for legs.^[7][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A reed or other plant with a straight, jointed stem: canne de Provence, canne à sucre “sugar cane”.^[9][3][5]
2. Rattan or cane used to make the seats of chairs.^[5]
3. A walking stick, a cane: canne blanche (a blind person's white stick), cannes anglaises (forearm crutches).^[9][7][1]
4. Canne à pêche: a fishing rod.^[9][7]
5. A glassblower's blowpipe.^[5][7]
6. (sports) The stick used in a fencing-like combat sport, and a golf club.^[7]
7. (familiar, usually plural) A leg: il ne tient plus sur ses cannes.^[9][1]

Word family

• cannaie
• canner
• cannage
• canne à sucre
• canne à pêche

Related words

• canal
• canon²
• cannelle
• Latin canna
• English cane

Usage notes

The Grand Robert lists a second canne, “jug”, which it calls the same word: Old French chane (about 1160, in the Roman d'Énéas), from Latin canna in the sense “tube”.^[10][2] It also meant a liquid measure (1286), died out in French in the 15th century, and survives in western, north-western, Burgundian and Franco-Provençal dialects.^[2][7] Anglo-Norman had it as canne, chane, “flagon, pitcher”.^[11]

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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
7. ^ 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 199a
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)