cigale

Forms

cigale f (plural cigales)^[1] First written sigalle (mid-15th century), then cigale (16th century).^[2][3] A Latinized form cigade is found in 1372, in Jean Corbichon.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan cigala, recorded in Old Occitan as singala in the first half of the 13th century and in its later spelling in 1470.^[2][3][5][6] The Occitan word comes from Imperial Latin cicada (“cicada”), with a change of suffix that is not well explained;^[2][3] Wiktionary gives the intermediate form as Vulgar Latin *cicāla.^[1] Rey adds that the Latin word was Mediterranean and is usually explained as imitating the insect's shrilling.^[3]

Cognate with Italian cicala, Spanish cigarra and Portuguese cigarra.^[5][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as sigalle in the mid-15th century, in Regnault et Jehanneton, attributed to René d'Anjou, naming the cicada.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the form cigale replaced sigalle.^[2][3] Rabelais used the scornful phrase ferrer les cigales, “to waste one's time on trifles”,^[3] which Cotgrave glosses as doing useless work;^[8] before 1613 the word also meant a bad poet.^[3]

La Fontaine's fable La Cigale et la Fourmi gave it the figurative sense of a heedless, improvident person.^[3] The insect's song also made it a metaphor for a street singer.^[2] In sailors' language it names the ring of an anchor or grapnel,^[8][9] and cigale de mer is a name of the mantis shrimp.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1450 – Sigalle appears in Regnault et Jehanneton.^[2][3]
• 16th century – The spelling cigale is found in a translation of Matthiolus's commentary on Dioscorides.^[2]
• 16th century – Rabelais uses ferrer les cigales.^[3]
• before 1613 – It is used of a bad poet.^[3]
• 16th century – Cigalon “young cicada” is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1876 – Cigalière, a waste place full of cicadas, is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cicada, a large insect of Mediterranean regions whose male makes a shrill, monotonous sound.^[2][9][10]
2. (figurative) A carefree, improvident person, after La Fontaine's fable.^[3][2]
3. Cigale de mer: the mantis shrimp (squill).^[9]
4. (nautical) The ring of an anchor or grapnel.^[9][8]

Word family

• cigalon
• cigalière

Related words

• Latin cicada

Usage notes

The opening line of La Fontaine's fable, La cigale ayant chanté tout l'été, is often quoted.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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, 662b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)