chicorée

Forms

chicorée f (plural chicorées)^[1] Old French cikoré (13th century), Middle French cicoree (about 1370), chicoree (1528).^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg also give cichorée in the 15th century.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin cicorea (also cicoria),^[2][3][5] from Latin cichoreum, from Ancient Greek κιχώριον (kikhṓrion);^[2][5][1] Rey says the Medieval Latin form comes from the Greek neuter plural, and that the Greek word has no known origin.^[3] The form with ⟨ch⟩ (1528) is due to the pronunciation of Italian cicoria (before 1250).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary treats the word as inherited from Old French cicoree, later influenced by the Italian word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, cikoré, is in a 13th-century medical treatise in a Cambridge manuscript, as the name of the plant chicory.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Le Fèvre has cicoree about 1370, and chicoree appears in 1528.^[2] By metonymy the word named the roasted root of wild chicory (1792) and the drink made from it, a traditional substitute for coffee in northern France,^[2][3] as well as the leaves eaten in salad.^[3]

By analogy it named a gathered or pleated ruche used as trimming (Boursault, 1694, an isolated use)^[2] and, in architecture, a leaf ornament (Hugo, 1831–32).^[2][6] From it come chicon (1651), probably by false regression, once the romaine lettuce and now the northern French and Belgian name for the endive,^[3] and the botanical chicoracées (1698).^[2]

Timeline

• 13th century – Cikoré in a medical treatise.^[2]
• c. 1370 – Cicoree in Le Fèvre's Lamentations de Matheolus.^[2]
• 1528 – The form chicoree.^[2][3]
• 1651 – First record of chicon.^[3]
• 1694 – Boursault uses it for a pleated trimming.^[2]
• 1792 – The roasted root of wild chicory.^[2][3]
• 1831 – Hugo uses it for an architectural ornament.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. chicory, a plant of the Compositae with blue flowers, several kinds of which are grown for their leaves: chicorée sauvage, chicorée frisée.^[7][2][8]
2. The leaves of cultivated chicory, eaten in salad, such as frisée and scarole.^[7]
3. The roasted root of chicory, and the drink made from it as a substitute for coffee: un bol de chicorée.^[7][2][1]
4. (dated) A gathered or pleated ruche used as trimming.^[2][6]
5. (architecture) An ornament of curled leaves.^[2][6]

Word family

• chicon

Related words

• endive
• Latin cichoreum

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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 r s t 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 g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette