crabe

Forms

crabe m (plural crabes)^[1] Old French crabe, feminine la crabbe about 1320.^[2][3] Dialect forms include Jèrriais crabe (feminine), Norman crape (masculine), Walloon crape and Picard crabo.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is a Norman, Walloon and Picard word, probably taken by two routes: in Normandy it is borrowed from Old Norse krabbi (masculine), and in Wallonia and Picardy it is borrowed from Middle Dutch crabbe (feminine).^[2][4] This double origin would explain why the word long hesitated between the two genders.^[2][4] Bloch and Wartburg derive it from the Old Norse word and think the feminine came from contact with the Middle Dutch one.^[5][6] Both go back to Proto-Germanic *krabbô, also the source of Old English crabba (“crab, crayfish”).^[1]

Rey places it in a Germanic group that includes words for hooks and claws, and thinks the animal was named for its pincers.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1119 in the Comput of Philippe de Thaon, as the name of the crustacean.^[2][3] Old French examples are too few to show its gender.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its gender varied for centuries: feminine about 1320, masculine in 1560, feminine again in Furetière (1690), and masculine from the Académie of 1762, which settled it.^[2] As the name of the crustacean it displaced cancer and chancre.^[4]

In medicine it named a kind of chancre of the sole of the foot (1806).^[2][4] Bruant uses it in 1901 for “a fellow”, and un vieux crabe is a ridiculous old man.^[2][4] From the crab's behaviour come marcher en crabe “to walk sideways” and panier de crabes, a group of people intriguing against one another.^[4][7] Regional French has many names for species, such as crabe des neiges in Canada.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1119 – First record, in Philippe de Thaon's Comput.^[2]
• c. 1320 – The feminine la crabbe is recorded.^[2]
• 1560 – Gesner has the masculine crape.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière still makes it feminine.^[2][4]
• 1762 – The Académie makes it masculine.^[2]
• 1806 – Capuron records the medical sense.^[2]
• 1901 – Bruant uses it for a person.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crab, a decapod crustacean with a pair of pincers, often edible.^[8][9]
2. Marcher en crabe: to walk sideways.^[8][9]
3. Panier de crabes: a group of people scheming against one another.^[8][9]
4. (familiar) Vieux crabe: a stubborn old man.^[8]
5. (familiar) Cancer (the disease).^[9][1]
6. (astronomy) Nébuleuse du Crabe: the Crab Nebula.^[8][2]

Word family

• crabier

Related words

• écrevisse
• Old Norse krabbi

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 350a
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)