dragée

Forms

dragée f (plural dragées)^[1] Old French dragie, dragiee;^[2][3][1] dragée is found about 1398 in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain.^[4][2] The usual explanation is inherited from Old French dragiee, from imperial Latin tragēmata (“dessert”), which is from Ancient Greek τράγημα (trágēma, “sweetmeat, something crunched”), from τρώγω (trṓgō, “to gnaw, to munch”).^[2][4][3][1] The change of /tr/ to /dr/ is unexplained, since drogue is not recorded before the 14th century, and the ending is unclear; the TLFi suggests an altered form in monasteries, where the word seems to have been common.^[2][5] Italian treggea, Spanish gragea and Old Occitan dragea are related, but how they connect with the French word is obscure.^[5][4] Pierre Guiraud saw instead a figurative use of the farm word for mixed grain grown as fodder (see Usage notes), as a mixture of small sugared fruits.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, dragiees in the First Continuation of Perceval (about 1200), names a sweetmeat.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word names a sweet made of an almond coated in hardened sugar, given at baptisms, first communions and weddings.^[4][7] In pharmacy it was a pill coated with sugar or gum (1776), and by likeness of shape it named small shot for hunting (1552, Rabelais), then in slang a bullet (1792).^[4][2] Dragées de Tivoli (1775) are grain-shaped concretions of calcite.^[2][4]

Tenir la dragée haute à quelqu'un “to make someone pay dearly for what he asks” is dated 1773 (Diderot) by the DHLF and the Petit Robert, 1826 by the TLFi; some connect it with the sweet, others with the fodder word.^[4][7][2] Avaler la dragée “to swallow a bitter pill” is recorded in 1808.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Dragiees appears in the First Continuation of Perceval.^[2]
• c. 1398 – The Ménagier de Paris has the form dragée.^[3][8]
• 1552 – Rabelais uses it for small shot.^[2][4]
• 1773 – Tenir la dragée haute is found in Diderot.^[4][7]
• 1775 – Dragées de Tivoli is recorded.^[2]
• 1776 – It names a sugar-coated pill.^[4]
• 1792 – It is slang for a bullet.^[2][4]
• 1850 – The derivative dragéifier appears.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sugared almond: an almond, hazelnut or other centre coated in hardened sugar, given at christenings and weddings.^[7][2]
2. (pharmacy) A sugar-coated pill.^[2][1]
3. (hunting) Small shot.^[2][3]
4. (slang, dated) A bullet.^[2][3]
5. Tenir la dragée haute à quelqu'un: to make someone pay dearly for something, or keep it out of their reach.^[7][4]

Word family

• drageoir
• dragéifier

Related words

• Latin tragēmata

Usage notes

A different dragée, a farming term for a mixture of grain sown as fodder, goes back through Old French dravie (about 1200) to a popular Latin *dravocata, from dravoca (“darnel”), a word probably of Gaulish origin; the regional dravière has the same source.^[6][4][5]

References

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