cueillette

Forms

cueillette f (plural cueillettes)^[1] Old French cueilloite, colleite and coilloite.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cueilloite, inherited from Latin collēcta (“contribution, collection”), the feminine past participle of colligō (“to gather”) used as a noun; the ending was soon replaced by the suffix -ette.^[2][4][5] The Latin noun meant a share or a collection of money in Classical Latin and “harvest” in Medieval Latin (1257).^[2][5] The Grand Robert adds the influence of cueillir.^[6] The same Latin word was borrowed as collecte.^[1][5]

Cognate with Italian colletta, Spanish cosecha, Portuguese colheita, Catalan collita and Occitan culhida.^[4][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first found as cueilloite in Jean Bodel's Congés d'Arras (about 1205), meaning a tax;^[2] colleite in a document of 1260 probably means a harvest.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word named a tax before leaving that sense to collecte; from the 13th century it meant the harvest and, by metonymy, the flowers and fruit gathered.^[5] In the 14th century it also meant a collection of money, and faire la cueillette was said for taking up a collection, a sense later left to collecte.^[4][5][3] Froissart used it in the 15th century for a gathering of men.^[3] In shipping, a vessel loaded à la cueillette carries goods from several shippers (1681).^[7][8] Ethnologists use the word for gathering wild plant food among peoples who do not farm.^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1205 – Cueilloite “tax” in Jean Bodel's Congés d'Arras.^[2]
• 1260 – Colleite probably means a harvest.^[2]
• 14th century – Used for a collection of money.^[4][3]
• 1681 – The shipping sense is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The picking or gathering of fruit, flowers or vegetables.^[8][2]
2. The fruit or flowers that have been picked.^[8][5]
3. The gathering of wild plant food by peoples who do not farm.^[8][5]
4. (nautical) À la cueillette: of a ship loaded with goods from several shippers.^[8][3]
5. (dated) A collection of money for the poor.^[3][5]

Related words

• cueillir
• collecte
• Latin collēcta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert