corbeau

Forms

corbeau m (plural corbeaux, feminine corbelle)^[1] Old French corbel, nominative corbiaus and corbaus.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French corbel (nominative corbiaus).^[3][2] The TLFi explains it as formed from Old French corp (“raven”) + -el, with the diminutive suffix from Latin -ellus.^[3][4][5] The simple word, corp (plural cors, about 1120) or Anglo-Norman corf, soon went out of use.^[3][6][4] The Anglo-Norman form is the regular outcome of Latin corvus (“raven”), as are Italian corvo, Spanish cuervo and Portuguese corvo, while the form with /p/, like Old Occitan corp, goes back to a variant *corbus.^[3][7]

Rey instead takes the word orally from a Vulgar Latin diminutive *corbellus; he suggests that this variant was a dialect form brought to Gaul by colonists from parts of Italy, such as Tuscany, where /rv/ became /rb/.^[6] Wiktionary also allows a Late Latin corbellus or corvellus.^[1] Rey gives the Latin word the same expressive origin as cornīx (“crow”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as corbiaus in the 12th century, in the Sept Sages, naming the raven.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In everyday French, rather than in ornithology, the word covers several birds of the crow family, such as the rook and the crow, the raven itself having become very rare in France.^[6][8] Bloch and Wartburg note that corneille, graille and grole compete with it.^[4]

By likeness to the bird's beak it named, from about 1230, a stone jutting from a wall to carry a projecting part, the source of encorbellement (1394);^[3][6][4] as a Latinism it was used in 1567 for the grappling hook of ancient galleys.^[3][6] In the 19th century the black bird of ill omen gave it pejorative popular senses: a priest in a black cassock (1829 according to Rey, 1845 in Bescherelle), spread by anticlericalism, then an undertaker's man and a ruthless, money-grabbing man (1882, Becque), and in the 20th century the writer of anonymous letters or telephone calls.^[6][3][9]

Timeline

• 12th century – Corbiaus appears in the Sept Sages.^[3]
• c. 1230 – It is used in architecture for a corbel, in charters of Douai.^[3][6]
• 1394 – Encorbellement is formed from the architectural sense.^[4]
• 1567 – J. Martin's translation of Vitruvius uses it for a grappling hook.^[3][6]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records it for “priest”.^[3][9]
• 1882 – Becque uses it for a greedy, unscrupulous person.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A raven or crow, a large black bird of the crow family with a strong beak.^[8][3][1]
2. Noir comme un corbeau: very dark, of hair or complexion.^[8][10]
3. (familiar, dated) A priest.^[8][3]
4. (familiar) The writer of anonymous letters.^[8][6][1]
5. (familiar) A greedy, unscrupulous person.^[3][6]
6. (architecture) A corbel, a stone or beam projecting from a wall to carry a load.^[3][6][1]
7. (historical) A grappling hook used on ancient warships.^[3][1]
8. (historical) A man who carried away the bodies of the dead in time of plague.^[2][1]

Word family

• corbillat
• encorbellement
• corbac

Related words

• corbin
• cormoran
• corneille
• Latin corvus

Usage notes

La Fontaine's fable Le Corbeau et le Renard made the bird proverbial.^[8] The old synonym corbin, from Latin corvinus “of the raven”, survives only in bec de corbin and of a hooked nose.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1238b
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse