couche

Forms

couche f (plural couches)^[1] Old French culche (about 1170), colche (12th century), cuche and coche;^[2][3][4] Middle French coucque (1505).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a deverbal noun from French coucher.^[2][1][3][5] The verb continues Latin collocō (“to place, set”), from locō (“to place”); already in classical Latin the verb meant to lay something down at full length, and after the Vulgate it was used of putting someone to bed.^[5] The sense of childbirth probably comes rather from Middle French coucher (“to give birth”), a shortened form of accoucher.^[2]

The verb has cognates in Romanian culca and Italian coricare.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

About 1170 the Quatre Livres des Rois has culche for a bed: sur une culche s'assist “he sat down on a bed”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Couche meant “bed” in Old and Middle French; by the 17th century it had become a burlesque word (Richelet, 1680) or a poetic one (Académie, 1694).^[6][2] In the 16th century it took the sense “baby's napkin” (1505, coucque),^[6][2] still used today, along with couche-culotte (1929).^[6] From 1552 estre en couche meant “to be in childbed”, chiefly in the plural les couches, and fausse couche “miscarriage” is found in 1671.^[2][6]

From the old technical sense “pile of things laid flat together” (sheets, hides, 1268), it named in gardening a bed of manure and soil for forcing plants (1529), hence champignons de couche “cultivated mushrooms”.^[2][6] From 1580 it was an even spread of a substance over a surface and, in geology, a stratum;^[2][6] it was later used of the layers of the atmosphere (before 1783), of wood (1771) and of society (couches sociales, 1830).^[2][6] Popular French has en avoir une couche “to be dim-witted” since 1883.^[2][6] In Quebec a child who is aux couches is still in nappies.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Culche “bed” in the Quatre Livres des Rois.^[2]
• 1268 – A pile of sheets or hides laid together, in the Livre des métiers.^[2]
• 1505 – Coucque “baby's napkin”.^[2]
• 1529 – Gardener's hotbed.^[2]
• 1552 – Estre en couche “to be in childbed”.^[2]
• 1575 – The spelling couche in Ambroise Paré.^[2][3]
• 1580 – Palissy uses it for a layer and a geological stratum.^[2]
• 1671 – Fausse couche in a letter of Mme de Sévigné.^[2]
• 1680 – Richelet calls couche “bed” a burlesque word.^[2]
• 1830 – Couches de la société in Lamartine.^[2]
• 1883 – En avoir une couche “to be stupid”.^[2]
• 1929 – Couche-culotte.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or poetic) A bed: la couche nuptiale.^[7][8][9]
2. A baby's nappy or diaper; lange.^[7][8][1]
3. (chiefly plural) childbirth, the lying-in of a woman: être en couches, relever de couches;^[7][8][10] fausse couche, a miscarriage.^[7][8][10]
4. A layer or coat of a substance spread over a surface: une couche de peinture, une couche de neige.^[7][8][1]
5. (geology) A stratum; also a layer of the atmosphere or of tissue.^[6][1]
6. (figurative) A stratum of society: les couches sociales.^[6][2]
7. (gardening) A hotbed of manure and soil: champignon de couche.^[2][6]
8. (familiar) En tenir une couche, en avoir une couche: to be very stupid.^[8][2][1]

Word family

• sous-couche
• couche-culotte
• monocouche

Related words

• coucher
• couchette
• accoucher
• coucheur
• Latin collocō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)