chalumeau

Forms

chalumeau m (plural chalumeaux)^[1] Old French chalemel, rarely chalemelle;^[2] Picard and northern forms such as calimel and calimiel.^[3] Chalumeaulx appears in a manuscript of 1464.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French chalemel, inherited from Late Latin calamellus, a diminutive of calamus (“reed”).^[4][5][2][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos, “reed”).^[1] The Latin word already meant the hollow branch of a candlestick (Vulgate), a reed pipe (5th century), a pipette for the eucharistic wine and a limed twig for catching birds, senses that the French word later had too.^[4][5]

Cognate with Italian caramella and Spanish caramillo^[2] and with Old Occitan calamel.^[3] It is a doublet of caramel.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

As chalemel it meant a reed in the Cambridge Psalter in the middle of the 12th century;^[4] Rey dates the first record to about 1120.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “reed” soon gave way to specialised ones.^[5] In music the word named a shepherd's pipe (Chrétien de Troyes, 1165–1170), the pipe of the musette (1680) and, by metonymy, the low register of the clarinette (1832).^[4][5]

By analogy it named metal tubes: a gold or silver tube channelling the fumes of a perfume (about 1160), a pipette for drinking wine (1530), used in the liturgy (1625), and a blowpipe for directing air at a flame to make it hotter (1680).^[4][5] Today this last sense has become the gas torch that produces a very hot flame for welding and cutting metals.^[5][6] A twig smeared with birdlime for catching small birds is recorded in 1832.^[4][5] In Canadian French it is the spout driven into a maple tree to draw the sap (1903).^[7]

Timeline

• Mid-12th century – Chalemel “reed” in the Cambridge Psalter.^[4]
• c. 1160 – The Roman d'Énéas uses it for a tube channelling a perfume's fumes.^[4][5]
• 1165–1170 – Chrétien de Troyes, in Érec et Énide, names it among musical instruments.^[4]
• 1464 – The form chalumeaulx appears in a manuscript of the Quinze Joies de mariage.^[4]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records it for a pipette to draw wine.^[4]
• 1680 – Richelet records the pipe of the musette and the blowpipe.^[4]
• 1832 – Raymond records the low register of the clarinet and the limed twig.^[4]
• 1903 – The Canadian sense “maple sap spout” is recorded.^[7]
• 1955 – The derivative chalumeur-coupeur “torch cutter” appears.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A tube, first of reed or straw, for drinking or blowing; a drinking straw.^[7][6]
2. (Canada) A small spout put into a cut in a maple to let the sap run out.^[7]
3. A rustic pipe or reed flute; the pipe of a musette or cornemuse; the low register of the clarinet.^[7][4]
4. A blowtorch, a tool producing a very hot gas flame for welding or cutting metals: découper une tôle au chalumeau.^[7][6]
5. (hunting) A twig smeared with glu for catching birds.^[4][6]

Word family

• chalumer

Related words

• chaume
• caramel
• calame
• Latin calamus

Usage notes

The old verb chalemeler “to play the pipe” (12th century) barely survives in chalumer.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert