craquer

Forms

craquer^[1]

Etymology

It is from French crac, the imitative word for a sharp cracking noise.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The same imitation is found in Germanic verbs such as German krachen and English to crack.^[3][5] The Latin verb of the same meaning, Latin crepō, gave crever instead.^[3]

Wiktionary instead traces it to Middle Dutch kraken (“to crack, crackle”), from Frankish *krakōn.^[1] The TLFi compares the use for the collapse of a business or a society with the same use of the English verb, found from the 17th century, and Rey thinks the French sense was taken from it.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1544, in Jean Martin's translation of Sannazaro's Arcadia, for the dry clattering noise a bird makes with its beak.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1546 it meant more generally to make a sharp, dry noise.^[2][3] Ronsard has cranes that craquer aigu as they cross the sea.^[7] In 1662 Pascal used it for breaking, without any idea of noise, and the familiar phrase plein à craquer “packed full” rests on this sense.^[2][3]

Figuratively it meant being shaken or threatening to collapse (1718), especially of social and economic realities (1806–07, Joseph de Maistre), and of a person breaking down under strain (1847, Balzac).^[2][3] The transitive uses “to make give way” and craquer une allumette date from 1908.^[2][3] In familiar use since about 1970 it means to give in suddenly to a desire, which gave craquant “irresistible” (1966).^[3] The technical sense “to crack petroleum” (1931) was taken from English.^[3]

Timeline

• 1544 – First record, of a bird's beak clattering.^[2]
• 1546 – It means to make a sharp, dry noise.^[2][5]
• 1553 – The derivative craquement appears.^[3][5]
• 1662 – Pascal uses it for breaking.^[2]
• 1718 – It is used for being shaken and threatening to collapse.^[3][8]
• 1806–07 – Joseph de Maistre uses it of failing institutions.^[2]
• 1847 – Balzac uses it of a person who breaks down.^[2][3]
• 1908 – Transitive uses, including craquer une allumette.^[2]
• 1931 – The oil-refining sense is borrowed from English.^[3]
• c. 1970 – It comes to mean giving in to a desire.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To make a sharp, dry noise; to creak or crackle: Le parquet craquait sous nos pas.^[8][1]
2. To give way, burst or tear, often with a cracking noise: La couture a craqué.^[8][9]
3. Plein à craquer: packed full.^[8][3]
4. To be shaken, threaten to collapse; to fail.^[8][2]
5. (of a person) To break down nervously or morally: Elle a fini par craquer.^[8][2][1]
6. (familiar) To give in to a temptation, to fall for someone or something: craquer pour a person.^[1][3]
7. (transitive) To strike a match: craquer une allumette.^[8][2]
8. (transitive) To break or tear something.^[9][2]
9. (chemistry) To crack petroleum products.^[9][1]

Word family

• craquage
• craquant
• craqueler
• craquement
• craqueter
• craque
• craqueur

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and Littré list a second verb craquer “to lie, to boast”, recorded by the Académie in 1718 and now obsolete; the TLFi takes it as a special sense of this verb, perhaps by comparing such talk with the irritating noise of certain birds, and it survives in craque “a fib”.^[4][7][2][3]

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 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 r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d 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. 2, 1268b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)