cerceau

Forms

cerceau m (plural cerceaux)^[1] Old French cercel, with the nominative singular cercels or cerceax.^[2][3] Spellings such as cerciau, cerchaus and cerceaulx are found from the 13th to the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cercel, inherited from Late Latin circellus (“small circle”), a diminutive of Latin circus (“circle”).^[3][4][5][6] Rey notes that the Late Latin word was one of three diminutives of the Latin noun, beside circulus and circinus, the sources of cercle and cerne.^[7]

Cognate with Spanish cercillo (“barrel hoop”), zarcillo (“earring”) and Romanian cercel (“earring”).^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Comput (about 1120) uses it for a ring or circle traced by a revolving motion, a sense found only in Old French.^[3][7] About 1200 Jean Bodel's Saisnes has cercel for the hoop of a barrel.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always kept a concrete, more or less technical sense.^[7] After the barrel hoop it named the arc made by the feathers of a bird's wing, especially the tips of the long wing feathers of birds of prey (1393), and in the 15th century the bow that holds up the cover of a cart.^[3][7] Richelet (1680) records it for a yoke used to carry buckets of water.^[3]

Later uses follow the hoop's many trades: a ring of hooks for candles (1751), the light hoop that children drive with a stick (Académie, 1835) and the steel hoop that spread out a crinoline (1860).^[3][7] In medicine it named, from 1844, a frame that keeps the bedclothes off a patient.^[9] Embroidery, the circus and rhythmic gymnastics use it too.^[10][3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Philippe de Thaon uses it for a ring or circle.^[3]
• c. 1200 – Cercel is used for a barrel hoop by Jean Bodel.^[3]
• 1393 – The Ménagier de Paris uses it for the arc of a bird's wing feathers.^[3]
• 15th century – It names the bow that holds the cover of a cart.^[3]
• 1680 – Richelet records it for a yoke for carrying buckets.^[3]
• 1751 – The Encyclopédie uses it for a ring of candle hooks.^[3]
• 1835 – The Académie records the child's hoop.^[3][7]
• 1844 – Nélaton uses it for a frame over a patient's bed.^[9]
• 1860 – Michelet uses it for a crinoline hoop.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wooden or metal hoop that holds together the staves of a barrel; by extension a hoop for a petticoat or crinoline, or one that holds the cloth taut in embroidery.^[10][3]
2. A hoop that an acrobat jumps through, often covered with thin paper: un cerceau enflammé.^[10][3]
3. (sports) A hoop used in rhythmic gymnastics.^[10][1]
4. A child's toy hoop driven along with a stick; also a hoop spun around the waist.^[10][11]

Related words

• cercle
• cerne
• cirque
• Latin circus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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 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. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 699a
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse