coque

Forms

coque f (plural coques)^[1] Anglo-Norman also has the spelling comque.^[2]

Etymology

The origin is obscure.^[3][4][5] The most widely accepted explanation is that it is inherited from Latin coccum (“kermes, a gall on a plant”), a word for the kermes insect and the small round growth it forms on the twigs of certain trees, which looks like a seed; from this likeness the word would have come to name various round objects.^[3][4][6] The Latin word was borrowed from Ancient Greek κόκκος (kókkos, “grain, seed”).^[3][7] Bloch and Wartburg note that the Latin word took on such senses as “berry”, “nut” and “shell” in the Romance languages.^[6] On this view the second stop was kept for expressive reasons.^[3]

A second explanation derives it from Medieval Latin cocca, recorded in the 11th century for a small hemispherical cup and regarded as a miswriting of concha (“shell”) (compare conque).^[3][4] Littré already traced it to the Latin word for a shell, comparing Old Spanish coca.^[8] The TLFi and the DHLF also allow that it may be an expressive formation; the DHLF mentions a nursery word imitating the hen's cry and first meaning the egg.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears about 1275 in Jean de Meun's part of the Roman de la Rose, for the hard shell of certain fruits.^[3][4] In the same poem it stands for something worthless: Vostre orguel ne vaut une coque “your pride is not worth a shell”.^[8][3]

Semantic evolution

The word for the shell of nuts soon spread to the shell of an egg (1306).^[3][4] French long hesitated between coque and coquille;^[4][3] coquille won for eggs and fruit, but coque is still required in œuf à la coque and survives in coque de noix for a tiny boat or a thing of no worth.^[4][3] From the early 14th century it also named an edible sea shellfish, though it cannot be told whether this was the cockle that now bears the name, which is recorded with certainty in 1751.^[4][3]

In the south-west of France, by borrowing from Languedoc Occitan coga, coque names an oval or ring-shaped cake, and in Lyon, after the Franco-Provençal dialects, a slice of bread dipped in milk and egg and fried (1785).^[4] In the 19th century the image of a rounded shell gave a knotted ornament on a dress or hat (1828) and a loop of hair (1832).^[3][4] About the same time (1834) it came to mean the hull of a ship, and in the 20th century the body of an aircraft (1929) and of a car (1951), whence the compounds monocoque and multicoque.^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose uses it for the hard shell of certain fruits.^[3]
• 1306 – Guillaume Guiart's Royaux Lignages uses it for an eggshell.^[3]
• Early 14th century – A treatise on sea fish uses it for an edible shellfish.^[3][4]
• 1524 – The derivative coquetier “egg cup” is recorded.^[6][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it for a clam-like shellfish.^[3]
• 1694 – Thomas Corneille records it as a sailors' word for a kink in an over-twisted rope.^[3]
• 1751 – It names the cockle.^[7][4]
• 1785 – In Lyon it names fried bread soaked in milk and egg.^[4]
• 1828 – Delécluze uses it for a knotted ornament on clothing or a hat.^[3]
• 1832 – Raymond records it for a loop of hair.^[3]
• 1834 – It is first used for the hull of a ship.^[3][4]
• 1929 – It is used of aircraft.^[3]
• 1951 – Carrosserie-coque is recorded for a car body.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or literary) The shell of a bird's egg; now chiefly in œuf à la coque, a soft-boiled egg cooked in its shell: Elle prend un œuf à la coque le dimanche.^[7][3]
2. The hard woody shell of certain fruits, such as the walnut, hazelnut or coconut;^[7] coque de noix, a very small boat.^[7]
3. A cockle, an edible bivalve mollusc.^[7][1]
4. An outer envelope, such as the protein coat of a virus.^[7]
5. A loop of hair or of ribbon puffed out like an eggshell.^[7]
6. The hull of a ship: un bateau à deux coques.^[7][1]
7. The central part of an aircraft's fuselage; in a car, the rigid body shell that replaces chassis and bodywork.^[7]
8. The casing of a phone.^[1]

Word family

• monocoque
• coquetier
• multicoque

Related words

• cocon
• coquillage
• coquille
• conque
• Latin coccum

Usage notes

Of eggs, coquille is now the usual word for the shell, and coque is kept mainly in œuf à la coque.^[3][4] The figurative sortir de sa coque is said of someone very young and inexperienced.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse