farcir

Forms

farcir^[1] Old French farsir; the spelling with ⟨c⟩ dates from the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French farsir, inherited from Latin farciō (“to stuff, cram, fill”).^[4][5][1][6] In Latin the verb was a term of stock-raising and cooking, “to fatten (animals)” and “to stuff”, and so “to pack, fill” literally and figuratively.^[7] Its past participle farsus gave Old French fars, whose feminine is farce “stuffing”.^[7]

Bloch and Wartburg find the verb only in Gallo-Romance, with Old Occitan farsir.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses farsir in his Vie de saint Thomas (1174–1176) in the general sense “to stuff, fill”: of a man who thought of other things than filling his belly.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The cooking sense, filling a dish with stuffing, is recorded before 1236 in Gautier de Coinci, beside roasting, frying and larding.^[4][7] The figurative sense “to fill or overload with” appears about 1210 (farsie de träisson, full of treachery);^[4][7] in the Roman de la Rose dreams are farcis with pleasant lies,^[8] and in the Roman de Renart a benedicamus farsi is a chant mixed with organ and descant parts.^[4][8] Modern French uses it for cramming a head or a text with knowledge, notions or quotations.^[9][7]

In 20th-century slang se farcir quelque chose meant “to get, to pocket” (1932), probably from phrases such as se farcir la panse “to eat one's fill”, recorded from the mid-19th century; it then came to mean “to put up with” someone or something, by antiphrasis, and vulgarly to have sex with someone.^[7][4][9] In Louisiana French the verb also means “to roast” meat.^[1]

Timeline

• 1174–1176 – Farsir “to fill, stuff” in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence.^[4]
• c. 1210 – Figurative use in the Dolopathos.^[4][7]
• Before 1236 – Cooking sense in Gautier de Coinci.^[4]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it of stuffing dishes.^[3][8]
• 1932 – Se farcir quelque chose in underworld slang.^[4][7]
• 1935 – Je vais me la farcir in Simonin and Bazin's Voilà taxi!.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (cooking) To stuff a dish (meat, fish, vegetables) with farce: farcir des courgettes.^[9][4]
2. (familiar) To fill something to the limit, to cram.^[4][3]
3. (figurative) To overload with knowledge, ideas or quotations: farcir un discours de chiffres.^[9][3]
4. Se farcir (familiar): to eat or drink (something), to get through (a chore), or to put up with someone or something.^[9][7]
5. Se farcir quelqu'un (vulgar): to have sex with someone.^[9][7]
6. (Louisiana) To roast meat.^[1]

Word family

• farci

Related words

• farce
• Latin farciō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d 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 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
5. ^ a b 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, 414b
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert