fève

Forms

fève f (plural fèves)^[1] Old French feve.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French feve, inherited from Latin faba (“bean”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} Rey notes that the bean belongs to the civilisation of north-western Europe and that the Latin word and its counterparts, such as Proto-Slavic *bobъ, point to an initial *bhabo-, absent from Germanic, which may or may not be Indo-European;^[4] Wiktionary sets up Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- (“bean”).^[1]

Cognate with Italian fava, Old Occitan fava, Spanish haba and Portuguese fava;^[5][2] Littré also gives Norman feuve.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi first records it in 1178, in the Roman de Renart;^[3] Rey dates it to 1170.^[4] A 13th-century record is the Chronique de Rains, in which the besieged had only twelve beans a day to eat.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

The word names the seed; it is used for the plant from about 1398, in the Ménagier de Paris.^[4][7] About 1220 Gautier de Coinci already speaks of finding the bean in the Twelfth Night cake, trouver la fève, the fève that later became a small figurine.^[3][4][8]

By analogy (1611) it named seeds of similar shape, as the fève de cacao.^[4][7] The phrase fève de haricot (1690) is very probably the source of the usual sense of haricot, the American bean that largely replaced the broad bean.^[4] In Canada fève is the common word for the bean, as in fèves au lard (1913), dried white beans baked with salt pork.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 1178 – First record, in the Roman de Renart.^[3]
• c. 1220 – Trouver la fève of the Twelfth Night cake, in Gautier de Coinci.^[3][4]
• c. 1398 – The Ménagier de Paris uses it for the plant.^[4][7]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the extended sense for similar seeds.^[7][4]
• 1680 – The diminutive féverole is recorded.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records fève de haricot.^[4][7]
• 1913 – Fèves au lard is recorded in Canada.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The broad bean, a leguminous plant (Vicia faba) grown for its seeds.^[8][3]
2. The seed of this plant, eaten fresh or dried: écosser des fèves.^[8][2]
3. The small bean or figurine hidden in the Twelfth Night cake: fève des Rois.^[8][1]
4. By analogy, a seed of similar shape: fève de cacao “cocoa bean”.^[8][4]
5. (Canada) A bean, a haricot: fèves au lard “baked beans with salt pork”.^[8][4]

Word family

• féverole
• févette

Related words

• Latin faba

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. ^ 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 339a
7. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert