fauteuil

Pronunciation

• IPA: /fo.tœj/^[1]

Forms

fauteuil m (plural fauteuils)^[1] Old French faldestoel (faldestoed in the Chanson de Roland), faudestuel, faudesteuil, fauldetueil was still in dictionaries in the early 17th century, and fauteuil is first found in 1589.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French faldestoel, borrowed from Frankish *faldistōl (“folding seat”),^{[3][2][4][5][6][1]} a compound reconstructed from Old High German faldstuol (whence German Faltstuhl), English faldstool (1050) and Medieval Latin faldistolium (about 1100).^[2][3] Its parts correspond to falten (“to fold”) and Stuhl (“seat”).^[4][2] The ⟨l⟩ vocalized and the word contracted from faudesteuil to the modern form.^[2][4]

Romance languages borrowed it from French: Italian faldistorio, and through Church Latin it also gave French faldistoire (1668), its doublet.^[4][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Chanson de Roland (about 1100) has Un faldestoed i ont fait tout d'or mer, “they set up a folding seat there of pure gold”.^[7][3] It was a folding chair, richly decorated, carried on journeys by kings, bishops and lords.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French the word was often split up as faux d'estueil (1396) or faux deteil (1428), a folk etymology that shows its origin was forgotten; it named a ceremonial seat that was easy to carry.^[2] It stayed a court seat until the early 18th century, and the modern sense of an armchair is first clearly defined in 1671.^[2] Under Louis XIV the chair became a bourgeois piece of furniture, and the king supplied the Académie with its forty fauteuils.^[2]

The seat of authority gave tenir le fauteuil “to preside” (La Bruyère, 1688), and a seat at the Académie (about 1720, Fontenelle).^[3][8] From racing slang came dans un fauteuil “effortlessly” (1898) and arriver comme dans un fauteuil (about 1889).^[3][9][2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Faldestoed, Chanson de Roland.^[3]
• 1165–70 – Faudestuel, Chrétien de Troyes's Erec et Enide.^[3]
• 1396 – The folk spelling faux d'estueil.^[2]
• 1589 – The form fauteuil, in an inventory of Catherine de' Medici's furniture.^[3]
• 1671 – The modern armchair is explicitly defined.^[2]
• 1688 – Tenir le fauteuil “to preside”, La Bruyère.^[3]
• c. 1889 – Arriver comme dans un fauteuil in racing.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. An armchair: a seat for one person with a back and arms, fauteuil roulant, a wheelchair, fauteuil à bascule, a rocking chair.^[10][1]
2. A seat in a theatre or cinema: fauteuil d'orchestre.^[3][10]
3. A seat of office, especially one of the forty seats of the Académie française.^[8][10]
4. The chair of an assembly; its presidency.^[3][2]
5. (familiar) Dans un fauteuil, comme dans un fauteuil: easily, without effort.^[10][8]

Related words

• faldistoire
• English faldstool

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/2, 103b
7. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert