fiel

Forms

fiel m (plural fiels)^[1] Old French fel (late 10th century), then fiel.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French fel,^[2][3] inherited from Latin fel (“gall, bile, bitterness”).^[3][4][5][6] Wiktionary gives an intermediate Vulgar Latin *felem, masculine or feminine, beside the Latin neuter.^[1] The TLFi, by contrast, describes the word as taken from classical Latin.^[2] In Latin it first named the gall bladder and then the bile, and was already used figuratively.^[4] Rey thinks the Latin word may belong to a group of Indo-European words for a yellow colour;^[3] Littré compares Ancient Greek χόλος (khólos, “bile”) and German Galle.^[7]

Cognate with Romanian fiere, Italian fiele, Occitan fel, Catalan fel, Spanish hiel (feminine) and Portuguese fel.^[8][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

As fel it appears at the end of the 10th century in the Passion, for the bile secreted by the liver.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “bitterness mixed with hatred or spite” is found by 1160–1174 in Wace's Roman de Rou;^[2][3] Benoît de Sainte-Maure lists fiel with hatred and discord among the devil's work in men's hearts.^[7] The gall given to Christ on the cross, with vinegar, is in a 13th-century psalter.^[7][9] Joinville uses the word for the gall bladder.^[10]

The proper sense is now limited to the bile of slaughtered animals and poultry, while the figurative one is literary, as is the rhetorical pairing of le fiel et le miel.^[3][11] The adjective fielleux, once a medical term, has been only figurative since 1552.^[3]

Timeline

• Late 10th century – Fel in the Passion.^[2]
• 1160–1174 – Wace uses fiel figuratively for bitterness and spite.^[2]
• c. 1220 – The compound enfieller appears.^[3]
• 1552 – Fielleux is used figuratively.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) Bile, the bitter liquid secreted by the liver.^[11][2]
2. The bile of slaughtered animals or poultry: fiel de bœuf.^[11][7]
3. (figurative) bitterness mixed with ill will or spite: une lettre pleine de fiel.^[11][2]

Word family

• fielleux
• enfieller

Related words

• Latin fel

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c 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. 3, 445a
7. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert