dactyle

Forms

dactyle m (plural dactyles)^[1] Middle French daptille.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dactylus, which is from Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos, “finger”).^[4][5][6][1] The metrical foot was named after the finger, whose one long joint and two short ones match one long and two short syllables.^[7][5][6] The grass, the genus Dactylis, was named after its finger-like flower heads;^[8] the Grand Robert treats it as a separate borrowing of the same Latin word in the 16th century and numbers the metrical foot 1 and the grass 2.^[4]

It is a doublet of datte, which comes from the same Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as daptilles in Jean Le Fèvre's La Vieille (before 1376), in a passage on Latin metre that names piez, daptilles and spondées “feet, dactyls and spondees”.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The Académie recorded the metrical sense in 1694, as a foot of Latin verse of one long and two short syllables.^[9] In 1611 Cotgrave gave it a wider range: the date, a herb, a long shellfish, a precious stone from Crete, and the metrical foot.^[10] The botanical sense, a fodder grass, is dated to the 16th century by the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert and to 1811 by the GLLF;^[4][6][5] Boiste recorded a shell called dactyle in 1829.^[3]

The English word dactyl was borrowed from Latin in the late 14th century.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1370 – Jean Le Fèvre writes daptilles for metrical feet.^[2][5][3]
• 1500s – First used for a grass, according to the Grand Robert.^[4][6]
• 1611 – Cotgrave lists it with several senses.^[10]
• 1694 – The Académie records the metrical sense.^[9]
• 1811 – Wailly records the grass sense.^[5]
• 1829 – Boiste records a shell of this name.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (prosody) A dactyl, a metrical foot of Greek and Latin verse made of one long syllable followed by two short ones.^[12][6][5]
2. (botany) cocksfoot, a fodder grass of temperate regions.^[6][5][1]

Word family

• dactylique

Related words

• datte
• Latin dactylus
• Ancient Greek δάκτυλος (dáktulos)

Usage notes

Littré has a third headword dactyle for a priest of Cybele.^[7] Wiktionnaire also gives dactyle as a name of the datte de mer.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
3. ^ a b c d e Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
10. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ 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