cive

Forms

cive f (plural cives)^[1] Old French chive (late 12th century) and cive (early 13th century).^[2][3] The diminutive civette is recorded from 1549.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cive, inherited from Latin cēpa (“onion”), also written caepa.^[2][5][4][1] Rey calls the Latin word a borrowing of unknown origin.^[6]

Cognate with Romanian ceapă, Catalan ceba and Occitan ceba;^[7] Old English cipe was also taken from the Latin word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, as chive at the end of the 12th century in the Vie de Saint Gilles, is a garden where neither leek nor chive grew;^[2][3] in Old French the word meant both the onion and the chive.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The GLLF dates the present sense, a small onion-like herb, to 1268, in Étienne Boileau.^[8] Old French writers used the herb's colour in comparisons (vert com une cive in the Roman de la Rose) and its small value as a measure of worthlessness (n'i avés vaillant une cive).^[3]

The herb gave its name to the civé (after 1250), later civet (1636), a stew seasoned with cives, and Bloch and Wartburg note that cive still means the chive in Normandy.^[6][9] In modern French it is another name for the ciboule or the ciboulette.^[8][10][11]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – Chive appears in the Vie de Saint Gilles.^[2]
• Early 13th century – The spelling cive is found in Florence de Rome.^[2]
• 1268 – Étienne Boileau uses it for the herb.^[8]
• After 1250 – The derivative civé, a stew seasoned with cives, is recorded.^[6]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records the diminutive civette.^[2]
• 1636 – Civé is remade as civet.^[6][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) A plant of the onion family with bulbous roots, used in salads and stews; the ciboule or ciboulette (chive).^{[2][10][11][1]}

Word family

• civet
• civette

Related words

• Latin cēpa

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 591b
6. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)