flache

Forms

flache f (plural flaches)^[1] Old French and Anglo-Norman flasche.^[2] The Picard form flasque (late 13th century), remade as flaque in 1564, is the same word.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Old French flache (“soft, hollow”) used as a noun, the feminine of the Old French adjective flac (“soft, limp”), from Latin flaccus (“flabby, flaccid”).^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The feminine form drove out the masculine, and the sense of a pool of water seems to have grown out of the adjective's sense “hollow”.^[9] Rey adds that in the north of France the word may have been associated with Middle Dutch vlacke (“coastal pond”),^[3] and Tobler–Lommatzsch also cite Meyer-Lübke's derivation from that Middle Dutch word.^[10] Littré thought it probably came from German flach (“flat”).^[11]

It is a doublet of flasque and flaque.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adjective flac “soft” is found about 1180.^[5][6] An Anglo-Norman record of 1279 already uses the noun for a pool of standing water,^[2] and the TLFi's first French example, in the Miracles de Nostre-Dame (1341), means a place full of water and mud.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

From a hollow full of water, flache came to name other hollows and dips in a surface: a hollow left in squared timber where the axe or saw did not reach (1408, in a forestry record from the Cotentin),^[4][12] a sunken spot in a paved road (1440, again in 1680 in Richelet)^[13][6][14] and, in Palissy's 16th-century writing, the hollows left by a footprint in sand.^[11][12]

The Picard form gave modern flaque “puddle”, and flache itself is now regional in the sense “pool”, which Rimbaud used in 1871, beside its technical senses in carpentry, forestry and road building.^[3][4] The adjective, “not cut to a sharp edge”, is recorded of timber from 1676.^[6]

Timeline

• 1279 – An Anglo-Norman text uses flache for a pool of standing water.^[2]
• 1341 – The Miracles de Nostre-Dame use it for a place full of water and mud.^[4]
• 1408 – A record from the Cotentin uses it in forestry, of the part of a squared trunk left uncut.^[4][12]
• 1440 – First recorded for a sunken part of a paved surface.^[13]
• 1676 – Félibien uses flache as an adjective of timber whose arrises are missing in places.^[6]
• 1690 – Furetière records the derivative flacheux.^[4]
• 1871 – Rimbaud uses flache for a dark, cold pool in “Le Bateau ivre”.^[4][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (technical) A hollow or dip in the edge of a beam, or in the surface of wood or stone.^[13][11]
2. (forestry, carpentry) A spot on a trunk or squared timber where the bark or sapwood still shows.^[4][15]
3. (regional) A hollow in the ground where water lies, a puddle or small pond: Après l'orage, les chevaux buvaient dans une flache.^[13][4]
4. A sunken patch in a paved road or roadway, a pothole.^[13][15]

Adjective

1. (carpentry) Of timber, not squared to a sharp edge, so as to waste less wood.^[15][6]

Word family

• flacheux

Related words

• flaque
• flasque
• Latin flaccus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 590a
8. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
10. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner, p. 3:1886
11. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
12. ^ a b c d Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
13. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
15. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)