essuyer

Forms

essuyer^[1] Old French essuier, written essuyer from the 16th century.^[2][3] Old French also had essuer, as in the Roman de la Rose.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French essuier, inherited from Late Latin exsūcō (“to squeeze out the juice”).^[5][6][7] The Late Latin verb, recorded in the 5th century, is formed from ex- (“out of”) and sūcus (“sap, juice”), which French later borrowed as suc.^[7][3] Bloch and Wartburg trace the sense “to wipe” through an intermediate “to dry (plants)”.^[8][2]

Cognate with Italian asciugare, Romanian usca, Old Occitan eissugar, Spanish enjugar and Portuguese enxugar.^[9][4] Scheler derived the sense “to endure” from Latin exsequor, but Littré rejected this and keeps all the senses under one etymon.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Couronnement de Louis (1135) has it in the sense “to dry”.^[5] Rey describes the first sense as drying something wet by rubbing it with something that absorbs the moisture.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From drying something wet, the verb came to mean removing the moisture itself, and much later, in 1864, wiping off dust.^[7][2] The phrase essuyer les plâtres, literally “to dry the plaster”, means to live in a newly finished house, and figuratively to be the first to bear the drawbacks of something new.^[7][10]

A second figurative sense, “to have to bear something unpleasant”, appears with Agrippa d'Aubigné before 1630, first of soldiers under enemy fire and then, in the 17th century, of misfortunes in general.^[5][7]

In the dialects, Bloch and Wartburg note, essuyer dominates in Gallo-Romance but competes in the Centre and East with paner, an old derivative of pan.^[8] In Belgian French the noun essuie (1878) is a towel or a tea towel.^[7]

Timeline

• 1135 – First record, “to dry”, in the Couronnement de Louis.^[5]
• 12th century – Ressuer, later ressuyer, “to make dry”.^[7][8]
• 1377 – Essuior “towel”, taken up by essuyeur (1472).^[7]
• 16th century – The spelling essuyer.^[2]
• Before 1630 – Agrippa d'Aubigné uses it for enduring something unpleasant.^[5]
• 1864 – Littré records the sense “to wipe off (dust)”.^[2]
• 1858 – Essuyage “wiping”.^[7]
• 1914 – Essuie-glace “windscreen wiper”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To wipe or dry something wet by rubbing it with a cloth, sponge or towel: essuyer les tasses, s'essuyer les mains.^[10][5]
2. To wipe away what makes something wet or dirty: water, tears, dust.^[10][7]
3. Essuyer les larmes de quelqu'un: to console someone.^[2][4]
4. (figurative) To suffer or have to bear something unpleasant: a defeat, a refusal, enemy fire.^[5][7]
5. Essuyer les plâtres: to be the first to occupy a new building; figuratively, to be the first to bear the drawbacks of a new situation.^[10][7]

Word family

• essuie-glace
• essuie-mains
• essuie-tout
• essuyage
• ressuyer

Related words

• suc
• Latin sūcus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 322a
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert