cire

Forms

cire f (plural cires)^[1] Old French also chire and ciere.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cire, inherited from Latin cēra (“wax”).^[2][3][1][4] In Latin the word also meant sealing wax, and by metonymy a writing tablet or page, a wax statue or portrait, and encaustic painting.^[5][2] Rey compares Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós) and suggests that both Latin and Greek borrowed the word from an unidentified source.^[5] The falconry sense of the membrane at the base of a bird's beak goes back to Medieval Latin, where it is found in Frederick II's treatise on hunting with birds, about 1247–1248.^[2]

Cognate with Picard chire, Occitan cera, Spanish cera and Italian cera.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In its first record, the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), it is the wax used to seal letters: Freint le seel, jeté en a la cire “he breaks the seal and throws away the wax”.^[2][6][5]

Semantic evolution

From the early 12th century the word named the soft yellow substance made by bees, and its colour soon gave comparisons such as jaune comme cire (early 13th century);^[2][5] in the 16th and 17th centuries its softness gave others, comme de cire and mou comme de la cire, and the image of wax taking any shape was used by classical philosophers such as Descartes.^[5][2] Wax was also the support of writing and the material of moulded figures (1290), so that une cire came to mean a figure or medallion of wax (1723).^[2] The word for sealing wax lived on mainly in cire à cacheter.^[5]

In the 18th century cire was extended to similar substances made by plants (1741), and in the 19th to wax-based preparations for leather and floors (1834–1835).^[2][5] By analogy it named the yellow secretion of the ears and eyes (1573), properly called cérumen, a Medieval Latin derivative of the same word.^[5][2] In falconry it has named the cere of a bird's beak since 1284.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The Chanson de Roland uses cire for the wax of a seal.^[2]
• early 12th century – The Oxford Psalter uses it for beeswax.^[2]
• early 13th century – Raoul de Houdenc writes plus gaune que chire “yellower than wax”.^[2]
• 1284 – A falconry treatise uses it for the membrane at the base of the beak.^[2]
• 1290 – An image “made of wax” is recorded in the accounts of Artois.^[2]
• 1531 – Estienne's dictionary has il est faict comme de cire “it is very well made”.^[7]
• 1573 – Larivey uses it for the yellow matter of the eyes and ears.^[2][5]
• 1575 – Cyre d'Espaigne (sealing wax) appears in an inventory.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records mou comme de la cire.^[2]
• 1723 – Savary des Bruslons uses it for a wax figure or medallion.^[2]
• 1741 – It is used of a similar substance produced by plants.^[2]
• 1834 – Landais records it for a black polish for leather.^[2]
• 1835 – The Académie records polishing a floor or furniture with cire.^[2]
• 1905 – Cire à skis “ski wax” is found.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Beeswax, the soft yellowish substance bees use to build their combs;^[8][9][10] cire vierge is wax that has not been melted.^[8][9][10]
2. A wax or wax-based substance produced by plants or made for other uses: cire à épiler.^[8][2]
3. A polish of wax and solvents used to care for wood, floors or leather.^[10][11]
4. Cire à cacheter: sealing wax.^[5][1]
5. An object or figure made of wax.^[8][2]
6. Cire perdue: the lost-wax process, in which a wax model is melted out of a clay mould before metal is poured in.^[9][8]
7. (familiar) Earwax, cérumen: Il a de la cire dans l’oreille gauche.^[10][5]
8. (falconry) The cere, the yellow membrane at the base of some birds' beaks.^[2]

Word family

• cirage
• cirer
• cireur
• cireuse
• cireux
• cirier

Related words

• cérumen
• Latin cēra

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 u v w x y z 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. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 595a
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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)