cueillir

Forms

cueillir^[1] Old French coillir (about 980, as the perfect coillit); the spelling cueillir follows the stressed forms (13th century).^[2][3] Old French also had an infinitive cueudre, rebuilt on an old future coldrai, which survives in Walloon, Franc-Comtois and Swiss French dialects.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French coillir, inherited from Latin colligō (“to gather together, collect”).^[3][5][6] The Latin verb is an old compound of legō (“to gather, to read”) with com-, whose parts were no longer felt as such.^[5][4] The infinitive takes its stem from stressed forms such as cueille and its ending ⟨-ir⟩ from a very early remodelling after the perfect coilli.^[3][5][4] It is a doublet of the learned colliger.^[1]

Cognate with Romanian culege, Italian cogliere, Occitan colher, Catalan collir, Spanish coger and Portuguese colher.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, coillit in the Passion (about 980), means “took, carried off (someone)”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The broad Old French senses “take, carry off (someone)”, “welcome, take in” (1080) and “collect, levy” (12th century) went out of use, leaving the narrower “pick, harvest” (about 1150), said of plants, especially flowers, and by extension of other things such as shellfish.^[5][3] Bloch and Wartburg note that cueillir often meant “welcome, gather in” until the 17th century.^[4] It never fully displaced ramasser and its dialect variants, especially in the south, the Centre and the West; for plants Belgian French also says couper and Canadian and Indian Ocean French casser.^[5][4]

In literary use it took back the general sense “take, gather” as a metaphor (cueillir des lauriers).^[5][7] From 1878 it has the familiar sense “catch (someone) easily”, as in arresting a thief; in boxing (1904) it is used of catching an opponent.^[5][2] It also has technical uses in seafaring (1845, coiling a rope) and plastering.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 980 – Coillit “took (someone)” appears in the Passion.^[3]
• c. 1080 – Sense “welcome, take in”.^[5][8]
• first half of 12th century – The Oxford Psalter uses it for “harvest”.^[3]
• 1272 – The agent noun cueilleur is recorded, first as “tax collector”.^[5]
• 1322 – The derivative cueilloir is recorded.^[3][5]
• 1845 – Seafaring sense “coil (a rope)”.^[5]
• 1878 – Familiar sense “catch, nab (someone)”.^[5][7]
• 1904 – Used in boxing of catching an opponent.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pick or gather (fruit, flowers, leaves) by detaching them from the plant: cueillir des prunes au jardin.^[7][3]
2. (figurative, literary) To take or gain: cueillir des lauriers, to win great successes, also cueillir un baiser, to steal a kiss.^[7][9]
3. (familiar) To catch or pick up (someone) easily on the way: la police l'a cueilli à la sortie;^[7][5] cueillir qqn à froid, to catch someone off guard.^[7][5]
4. (nautical) To coil a rope.^[5][9]

Word family

• cueilleur
• cueilloir
• cueille
• cueillage

Related words

• cueillette
• accueillir
• recueillir
• colliger
• collecte
• récolte
• Latin colligō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
4. ^ a b c d e 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 j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 898a
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette