drogue

Forms

drogue f (plural drogues)^[1]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[2][3][4] The likeliest explanation: it is borrowed from Middle Dutch droge (“dry”), from droge vate (“dry barrels”), the adjective being taken as a noun for the contents, “dried goods”;^[2][3][1] Bloch and Wartburg note that Italian droga and Spanish droga are recorded later than the French word, which favours a Dutch source.^[5] The FEW instead derives it from an Arabic word for the chaff of wheat, a proposal that the TLFi finds hard to square with the sounds and the meaning.^[2][3][6] Pierre Guiraud saw in it a southern form of Latin dērogō (“to take away, diminish the value of”).^[3][4] Littré noted that English etymologists connected drug with an Old English word for “dry”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The derivative droguerie shows that the word existed in the 14th century,^[2][3] and a 14th-century poem against the alchemists already speaks of dissolving and distilling tes drogues.^[7][8] The TLFi's first direct record is drocques in Villon's Testament (about 1462), for ingredients used in dyeing and in chemical and pharmaceutical preparations.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From an ingredient the word passed to a remedy or medicine (1568), often with a pejorative tone that the verb droguer reinforced.^[2][3] From that came “something unpleasant to swallow” and, in Molière's L'Avare (1668), a person or thing of little worth, a sense now gone.^[2][3]

The now usual sense “narcotic” is recorded in Colette in 1913, and it has spread to tranquillisers and stimulants;^[2][3] the GLLF dates it to the same year in Gaston Esnault.^[8] Drogué “drugged; drug addict” dates from about 1930.^[3] droguerie meant spices and medicines in the 14th century and took its modern sense, a shop selling household goods, in 1835, much as English drug led to drugstore.^[3] The cloth droguet (1505) was probably named from the word in its sense “worthless thing”.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 14th century – The derivative droguerie.^[2][5]
• c. 1462 – Drocques in Villon.^[2]
• 1549 – Droguiste.^[5][3]
• 1554 – Droguer.^[5]
• 1568 – “Medicine, remedy”.^[2]
• 1668 – “Worthless person or thing”, in Molière.^[2]
• 1913 – “Narcotic”, in Colette.^[2]
• c. 1930 – Drogué.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drug, narcotic: le trafic de drogue, drogues douces and drogues dures, soft and hard drugs.^[9][1]
2. (figurative) Something one cannot do without: le jeu est devenu sa drogue.^[1][9]
3. (dated or pejorative) A remedy, a medicine, especially of doubtful worth.^[9][2]
4. (dated) Something unpleasant to drink.^[9][8]
5. (obsolete) A raw ingredient used in pharmacy, chemistry or dyeing.^[9][2]

Word family

• droguer
• drogué
• droguerie
• droguiste
• droguet

Usage notes

Drogue was also the name of a card game once played by sailors and soldiers, in which the loser had to wear a forked wooden peg on the nose; the Grand Robert dates it to 1829 and the Académie suggests it comes from the sense “worthless thing”.^[4][10]

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 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 g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 189b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale