erre

Forms

erre f (plural erres)^[2][3] Old French eire, oire, oirre.^[2][4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eire (“way, road”), inherited from Latin iter (“journey, march, road”), in the first of two explanations.^{[2][6][4][7][8]} Littré takes the old spellings with ⟨ei⟩ and ⟨oi⟩ (oire) as proof of the Latin source.^[4] The TLFi, the DHLF, the GLLF and Bloch–Wartburg also allow that it may be a deverbal noun from Old French errer (“to travel”),^[2][6][9][5] and the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert give only that explanation, the verb coming from Late Latin iterō.^[10][3] Bloch and Wartburg add that the form oirre may come from the stressed stem of the verb and went out of use with it.^[5] The Latin noun belongs with eō (“to go”) to the Indo-European root *ei-, *i- (“to go”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is eire in the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century), meaning “way, path”: l'eire des feluns “the way of the wicked”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “way, road, journey” was usual in Old French and into the 16th century;^[5] Richelet already found it “a little old” in 1680.^[2][6] From Wace (1160–1174) it also meant “pace, gait”, kept in the phrases aller grand erre (grant oirre, 1213) and aller belle erre, “to go at full speed”, which were common in the 16th century and old-fashioned by the 17th.^[6][9][4]

In the plural, erres became a hunting word for the tracks of an animal (1354), with erres rompues “lost tracks” and hautes erres “old tracks” (1636); it was also used of a person's tracks and figuratively of a way of acting or the thread of a story.^[6][4] In the singular it became a sailors' word in the 17th century for the speed a ship keeps when it is no longer driven (1687), as in prendre de l'erre and courir sur son erre.^[6][2][9] Regional French has erre d'aller “momentum” (1928).^[3]

Timeline

• first half of the 12th century – Eire “way” in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2]
• 1160–1174 – Wace uses it for “pace, gait”.^[2][6]
• 1213 – Grant oirre “at full speed”.^[6]
• 1354 – Erres in hunting, the tracks of an animal.^[6]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records à grand erre.^[9][6]
• 1680 – Richelet calls the sense “way” a little old.^[2]
• 1687 – Desroches's dictionary of naval terms has the nautical sense.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) The way of a ship, the speed it keeps after it stops being driven: courir sur son erre, briser son erre, prendre de l'erre.^[3][2][9]
2. (archaic) Pace, gait, manner of going: aller grand erre, belle erre “at full speed”.^[3][2][4]
3. (hunting, in the plural) The tracks of an animal, especially a stag.^[3][4]
4. (regional) Erre d'aller: momentum.^[3]

Related words

• errer
• errant
• itinéraire
• Latin iter

Usage notes

A separate masculine noun erre is the name of the letter R.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 823b
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert