cuillère

Forms

cuillère f (plural cuillères)^[1] Also spelled cuiller, with the same pronunciation.^[1][2][3] Old French culier, coller (masculine), cuillier (feminine) and cuillere.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French cuillier, inherited from Latin cochleārium (“spoon”), from cochlear (“spoon”), from cochlea (“snail, snail shell”).^[4][5][1] The Latin spoon was first a pointed instrument for eating snails;^[4][3] Rey explains the name either by this use or by the shell-like shape of the bowl.^[4][3] The Latin noun was itself borrowed from Greek.^[3] The feminine gender may be due to Medieval Latin cochlearis, a feminine.^[4][3]

Cognate with Italian cucchiaio, Catalan cullera, Spanish cuchara and Old Occitan culhier.^[1][2] Littré traces the Walloon cui to the Latin nominative.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded as culier in Rashi's French glosses (second half of the 11th century), meaning a spoon.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the table and kitchen utensil with a hollow bowl and a handle.^[3][4] By likeness of shape it took several technical senses: a gouge (1704) and a metal fishing lure (1866).^[4][3] Slang used it for the hand from 1878, in serrer la cuillère.^[4][3]

Of the spellings, cuiller replaced cuillier (still found in the 18th century) and the mistaken cueillère, after cueillir, but is now giving way to cuillère.^[3] Quebec French says cuiller à table and cuiller à thé for the soup spoon and teaspoon, and cuiller à pot “ladle” is recorded there in 1661.^[3]

Familiar phrases include en trois coups de cuiller à pot “in no time” (1881) and être à ramasser à la petite cuiller “to be in a very bad way”, found in Céline (1936); né avec une cuiller d'argent dans la bouche is a calque of the English phrase.^[3]

Timeline

• 11th century – Culier in Rashi's French glosses.^[4][3]
• mid-12th century – Masculine coller.^[4]
• 1160–1174 – Feminine cuillier in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[4]
• 1329 – The spelling cuillere is recorded.^[4][3]
• 1352 – The derivative culleron “bowl of a spoon” is recorded.^[3]
• 1393 – The derivative cuillerée “spoonful” is recorded.^[3]
• 1704 – Used for a gouge.^[4]
• 1866 – Used for a fishing lure.^[4][3]
• 1878 – Slang “hand”.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spoon, a table or kitchen utensil with a handle and a hollow bowl: cuillère à soupe, cuillère à café, petite cuillère.^[6][7]
2. The contents of a spoon, a spoonful: prendre une cuillère de miel.^[6][7]
3. (fishing) A spoon-shaped metal lure.^[4][3]
4. (technical) Any of various spoon-shaped tools; the lever that arms a grenade.^[6][7]
5. (slang) The hand: serrer la cuillère.^[4][3]

Word family

• cuilleron
• cuillerée

Related words

• coquille
• conque
• Latin cochleārium

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 827b
6. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)