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douve

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Etymology and origin of the French word douve

douve1 moat; barrel stave

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1180 Alexandre de Paris, Roman d'Alexandre
Inherited from
Latin doga via Old French
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek δοχή
Etymology tree of douve1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin doga
French douve
Italian doga
Romanian doagă
From the same root · douve1
Romanian dogar ← doagă

Pronunciation

Forms

douve f (plural douves)[1] Old French dove, then douve from about 1200;[2][3] Old French also had doue.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the moat and the barrel stave is inherited from Old French dove, inherited from Late Latin doga (“a kind of vessel, a liquid measure”),[3][4][2] which the TLFi and Rey take from Ancient Greek δοχή (dokhḗ, “receptacle, reservoir”);[3][2] Bloch and Wartburg call that borrowing only possible.[5] Rey explains the Greek noun as properly “the act of receiving”, from δέχομαι (dékhomai, “to receive”), whence both “feast, reception” and, concretely, “vessel”.[2]

Littré quotes the Late Latin word from Gregory of Tours in the sense of a water conduit, and follows Diez in tracing the senses from “water reservoir” to “ditch”, “edge of a ditch” and the board that holds the liquid in a cask.[6] Cognate with Italian doga (“barrel stave”) and Old Occitan doga, which had both French senses.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dove is first recorded about 1180 in Alexandre de Paris's Roman d'Alexandre, in la dove du fossé, the side or bank of a ditch.[3][2] The Robert dictionaries and the GLLF date the form to about 1160, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used in dove de fossé, then alone, for a ditch meant to be filled with water around a castle.[2] A ditch between two fields is recorded in 1850,[3] while the Nouveau Larousse illustré (1900) and later dictionaries record the water jump of the steeplechase, a ditch full of water behind a barrier.[3][2]

Already in Old French, about 1200, Jean Bodel used douve for one of the curved boards of a cask.[3][2] Rey explains this by metonymy, from the container to a part of it, and compares the sense “side of a ditch”.[2] Felt as a separate word, this sense gave the technical douvain (1491), wood for staves, and douvelle (1690), preceded by douelle (1296), formed on Old French doue.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1180 – La dove du fossé in Alexandre de Paris's Roman d'Alexandre.[3]
  • c. 1200 – Jean Bodel uses douve for a barrel stave.[3][2]
  • 1296 – The derivative douelle appears.[2][5]
  • 1491 – Douvain, wood for staves, is recorded.[2]
  • 1850 – Used of a ditch between two fields.[3]
  • 1900 – The Nouveau Larousse illustré records the steeplechase water jump.[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A moat, a broad ditch filled with water around a château or fortification: les douves du manoir.[9][3]
  2. (horse racing) A water jump, a wide ditch full of water behind a barrier on a steeple-chase course.[9][3]
  3. A narrow ditch between fields that drains off rainwater.[8][6]
  4. A barrel stave, one of the curved boards forming the body of a cask.[9][3]

Word family

  • douelle
  • douvain
  • douvelle

douve2 liver fluke; spearwort

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1379 Jean de Brie, Bon Berger
Inherited from
Latin dolva via Old French
Ultimate origin
Late Latin dolva

Pronunciation

Forms

douve f (plural douves)[1] Old French dolve, Middle French dauve.[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the liver fluke and the spearwort is inherited from Old French dolve, inherited from Late Latin dolva (“a kind of worm”),[3][10][2] recorded in the 5th century by Eucherius, bishop of Lyon.[5][2] The Latin word is probably of Gaulish origin.[5][2][9]

The plant is so named because it was thought to breed the worm.[3][2][5] Littré instead thought that the plant took its name from douve1 (“ditch”), since it grows in flooded ditches and marshes.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A form dolve for the intestinal worm of sheep has been read in Rashi's glosses at the end of the 11th century;[3][2] the form dauve is recorded in 1379 in Jean de Brie's Bon Berger, for the worm and for the marsh buttercup.[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names, as its Latin source did, a worm found in the liver of sheep.[2] By metonymy it came to name a buttercup of marshes (1379), a plant once believed to produce the worm.[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg date the plant sense only to 1564.[5] In modern zoology it is a parasitic flatworm (a trématode) living in the bile ducts of ruminants and of humans.[3][9]

Timeline

  • late 11th century – A form dolve is read in Rashi's glosses.[3][2]
  • 1379 – Dauve in Jean de Brie's Bon Berger, for the worm and the marsh buttercup.[3]
  • 1564 – The date Bloch and Wartburg give for the plant.[5]
  • 1801 – Crèvecœur uses douves for the worms.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A fluke, a parasitic flatworm of the trematodes, infecting snails and then the animals or people that eat them: douve du foie, the sheep liver fluke.[9][11][3]
  2. (botany) A spearwort, a buttercup growing in marshes: petite douve, grande douve.[3][1]
  • Late Latin doga
  • Late Latin dolva

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 114a
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 122a
  11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Douve.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/douve. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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