fauve

Forms

fauve (plural fauves)^[1] Old French falve;^[2][3] fauve from about 1165 (Marie de France).^[2][3] Anglo-Norman also had faun, faune and fave.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French falve, inherited from Late Latin falvus (9th century; also falbus, 8th–9th centuries), from Proto-West Germanic *falwa- (“yellowish red, tawny”).^[2][5][6][7] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert name the Germanic source as Frankish *falw,^[8][9] and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *falwaz (“pale, grey”).^[1] Like other Germanic colour words (blanc, bleu, blond, gris), it was probably brought into Late Latin by Germanic soldiers.^[2][5]

Cognate with Italian falbo and Old Occitan falp.^[6][10] Germanic cognates include Old High German falo, German falb^[2][6] and Dutch vaal, and the English word fallow.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as falve in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), meaning “yellowish red, tawny”: la teste toute falve, of a horse's head.^[2][10][5]

Semantic evolution

The colour sense has lasted from the start; as a noun it named a tawny horse once in Chrétien de Troyes (1176).^[2][5] In hunting, bêtes fauves (1561) were the wild animals with tawny coats, such as deer, hare and lion, as against the bêtes noires and bêtes rousses, and le fauve (before 1573) was the collective name for them.^[2][5][10]

The word then spread to wild animals in general (adjective 1790, noun 1791 in Volney) and at last to fierce ones (adjective 1832, noun 1859, both in Hugo), so that un fauve now usually means a big cat.^[2][5][9] The Romantics used the adjective freely in the figurative sense “wild, untamed”.^[5] Odeur fauve, a strong animal smell, is recorded in Gautier in 1852.^[2]

The word is recorded as an art term in 1905, in Louis Vauxcelles's review in Gil Blas;^[2] Rey dates the plural noun les fauves for the French painters who used pure, violent colours to 1923, whence fauvisme (1927).^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Falve appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][6]
• c. 1165 – The spelling fauve is found in Marie de France.^[3]
• 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it as a noun for a tawny horse.^[2]
• 1223 – The derivative fauvette “warbler” appears, named after the bird's colour.^[5]
• 1561 – Bestes fauves appears in Jacques du Fouilloux's treatise on hunting.^[2]
• 1790 – Marat uses it of wild animals in general.^[2][5]
• 1832 – Hugo uses it of fierce animals.^[2][5]
• 1905 – Louis Vauxcelles uses it as an art term in Gil Blas.^[2]
• 1927 – The derivative fauvisme appears.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Tawny, of a yellow verging on red: une veste de daim fauve.^[9][11][12]
2. Bête fauve: formerly a wild animal with a tawny coat (deer, hare); now a large wild cat or other ferocious animal.^[9][12][11]
3. Odeur fauve: a strong, animal smell.^[9][11][12]
4. (art) Of fauvisme: la période fauve d'un peintre.^[11][12]

Noun

1. A wild animal, especially a big cat such as a lion or tiger: la cage des fauves.^[9][12][11]
2. (familiar) A person who is hard to face, an unruly child.^[12]
3. The colour tawny.^[10][1]
4. (art) A painter of the Fauvist school: les Fauves.^[9][11]

Word family

• fauvette
• fauvisme
• fauviste
• fauverie

Related words

• Late Latin falvus
• English fallow

Usage notes

Sentir le fauve means to give off a strong, acrid animal smell.^[12] Unlike colour adjectives taken from nouns (marron, orange), fauve is an adjective that gave the noun, and it agrees in number: des cuirs fauves.^[12]

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 o p q 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/2, 106a
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)