Etymologically
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creux

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /kʁø/[1]

Forms

creux (feminine creuse, masculine plural creux, feminine plural creuses)[1] Old French crues, feminine cruose (about 1180); creus from the 13th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French crues, inherited from Vulgar Latin *crosus, of uncertain origin.[5][2][3] Because the word is spread through Gallo-Romance (Old Occitan cros) and the Rhaeto-Romance and northern Italian dialects, the DHLF, Bloch and Wartburg and the FEW think it probably Celtic, a word that would have replaced Latin cavus (“hollow”).[5][6][7] Wiktionary also mentions Late Latin crosum, from Latin corrōsus (“gnawed away”).[1] Diez had proposed that participle, while Littré derived the word from Latin crypta (“vault, grotto”), since Old Occitan has both crosa and crota.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a noun it first appears about 1121, in Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan, for a hollowed-out cavity; the adjective, cruose, is in Marie de France's Bisclavret (about 1180).[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective generally expresses the idea of an empty interior; by extension it meant “emptied of substance” (about 1474), literally and figuratively.[5][4] Songer creux (15th century) survives only in songe-creux, viande creuse (1611) has gone out of use, but tête creuse (1611) remains.[5][4] From the 12th century it also described a concave shape, a valley (Renart, 1174–77) or a face hollowed by thinness (13th century, then before 1613).[4][5]

The noun named moral or intellectual emptiness from Bossuet (before 1697), and parts of the body: le creux de l'œil (1549), le creux de la main (1559), le creux de l'estomac (1611).[4][5] With a word for a period of time, the adjective implies slack activity, as in heures creuses.[5][9] In Canadian French creux means “deep” (une rivière creuse) and, figuratively, remote.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 1121 – The noun in the Voyage de saint Brendan.[4]
  • 1174–77 – Un val crues in the Roman de Renart.[4]
  • c. 1180 – The adjective cruose in Marie de France.[4]
  • 15th century – Songer creux.[4][5]
  • 1549 – Le creux de l'œil in Estienne.[4]
  • 1611 – Cotgrave records teste creuse and viande creuse.[4]
  • 1690 – Furetière: avoir un beau creux de voix.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Hollow, empty inside: un arbre creux, une dent creuse.[9][1]
  2. Of a sound, made by striking something hollow; also as an adverb, sonner creux.[9]
  3. Avoir le ventre creux, to be hungry, avoir le nez creux, to have a good flair.[9][3]
  4. Having little substance; of periods, slack: heures creuses, off-peak hours.[9][1]
  5. (figurative) Empty of meaning: des paroles creuses.[9][3]
  6. Concave, sunken: assiette creuse, joues creuses, chemin creux.[9][8]
  7. (Canada) Deep: une rivière creuse.[5]

Noun

  1. A hollow, a cavity: le creux d'un rocher.[9][4]
  2. The hollow of a part of the body: le creux de la main.[9][4]
  3. (familiar) Avoir un petit creux: to feel a little hungry.[1][9]
  4. A period of slack activity, le creux de la vague, the trough of the wave.[1][9]

Word family

  • songe-creux

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 1362a
  8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert