Etymologically
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corail

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 17 October 2026 at 18:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kɔ.ʁaj/[1]

Forms

corail m (plural coraux)[1] Coral (before 1150), courail (1328), corail (1416); plural coraux; the Académie of 1694 still gives coral.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French coral, inherited from Late Latin corallum, an altered form of classical Latin corallium,[2][3][4][5][1][6] from Ancient Greek κοράλλιον (korállion), itself probably a borrowing.[3][1] Proposed sources are a Greek phrase “daughter of the sea”, calqued on an Indian expression, or a Semitic word such as Hebrew “gôrāl” “small stone”.[3] The ending “-ail” was remade from the plural “coraux”, and won out only in the 18th century.[2][3][4]

Cognate with Occitan coralh, Spanish coral and Italian corallo.[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marbode's lapidary (before 1150) has coral, the hard red substance used in jewellery; the guild statutes of 1260 mention makers of rosaries de coural.[2][3][7]

Semantic evolution

Long taken for a plant, as the 14th-century inventories that describe it as soft white wood turning to stone in the air show, coral was recognized as made by marine animals[7][3][2]; corail names both the colonies of polyps of warm seas (in zoology from 1775) and the limestone skeleton they secrete, used in jewellery.[7][3][2]

From its colour, Du Bellay (1549) praised le coral de voz levres, and corail is a bright red colour, as in serpent corail (1775), the coral snake.[2][3][8] It also names the red part of scallops and sea urchins.[3] Corailleur (1679) is a coral fisher.[3][4]

Timeline

  • before 1150 – Coral (Marbode's lapidary).[2][3]
  • 1328 – Un arbre de courail.[2]
  • 1416 – Corail (inventory of the Duke of Berry).[2][4]
  • 1549 – Le coral de voz levres (Du Bellay).[2][3]
  • 1679 – Corailleur.[3][4]
  • 1775 – The animal[2][3]; serpent corail.[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Coral, the colonial marine animal of warm seas: récif de corail.[9][1]
  2. Its red or white limestone skeleton, used in jewellery: collier de corail.[9][1]
  3. The red part (coral) of a scallop or sea urchin.[3][9]

Adjective

  1. Coral-red: des lèvres corail.[10][8]

Word family

  • corailleur
  • coralliaire
  • corallien
  • corallifère
  • coralliforme
  • coralligène
  • corallin
  • English coral

Usage notes

A second corail (1975–1976), from co(nfort) and rail influenced by the first, is the name of a type of French railway carriage: voiture corail, train corail.[5][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1178a
  7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d 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)