fauconnière

Forms

fauconnière f, pronounced [fokɔnjɛʀ]^[1] Middle French faulconniere.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French faucon + -ière.^[2][1][4][5] Littré instead derives it from fauconnier “falconer”.^[6]

The TLFi dates it from 1583, while the DHLF and the Académie put it in the 13th century and the GLLF cites Godefroy for that earlier date.^[2][7][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is faulconniere in Claude Gauchet's Le Plaisir des champs (1583), in a passage on flying a hawk at a heron, where it is the bag a falconer carries at his side.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

A letter of Charles VIII of 1487 uses fauconniere for the place where falcons are kept, a sense the DMF records for Middle French.^[9] The modern sense is the falconer's bag: Cotgrave in 1611 translates it as a falconer's bag or pouch.^[10]

The Académie in 1694 already defines it as the bag in which falconers carry their small belongings, and extends it to any bag divided in two that is hung from the saddle-bow; the 1932 edition keeps both senses, with the falconer's bag now in the past tense.^[11][12] A 16th-century French version of Merlin Coccaie pairs escarcelle ou faulconniere for a courier's pouch.^[6][3] The Wiktionnaire also gives the word as the feminine of fauconnier, a woman who trains and flies birds of prey.^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – The DHLF and the Académie date the word to this century.^[7][5]
• 1487 – A letter of Charles VIII uses it for a place where falcons are kept.^[9]
• 1583 – Claude Gauchet uses faulconniere for the falconer's bag.^[2][3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it “a Faulkoners bag, or powch”.^[10]
• 1694 – The Académie records it, with the extended sense of a two-part saddle bag.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (hunting) A falconer's game bag.^[2][5][8]
2. By extension, a bag divided in two that is fixed to the saddlebow to carry small items.^[2][5][6]
3. A woman who trains and flies birds of prey, a female falconer.^[4]

Related words

• faucon
• fauconnier
• fauconnerie

References

1. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Huguet, Edmond (1925–1967), Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle, 7 vols., Paris: Champion / Didier
4. ^ a b c Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
6. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
10. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
11. ^ a b Académie française (1694), Le Dictionnaire de l'Académie françoise, 1st ed., Paris: Coignard
12. ^ Académie française (1932–1935), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 8th ed., Paris: Hachette