foie

Forms

foie m (plural foies)^[1] Old French firie (Chanson de Roland), feie and foie; the subject case feis is also found.^[2][3] Middle French also has fie and fée.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French feie, inherited from Late Latin fīcātum (“fattened liver, liver”), formed on fīcus (“fig”).^[2][3][1][5] The Latin word was a cooking term, iecur fīcātum (“fig-fattened liver”), a calque of Ancient Greek συκωτόν (sukōtón, “fattened with figs”), from σῦκον (sûkon, “fig”): the Greeks fattened geese on figs, which enlarged the liver.^[6][7][4] It displaced the Latin word for the liver, iecur, in all the Romance languages.^[4][7]

The Greek word, still known in Latin-speaking lands and stressed in different ways, accounts for the many altered Romance forms.^[2][3][6] For French the TLFi and Rey give two lines.^[2][3] In one, the stress shifted to *fícatum, then *fícitum (the form figido of the 8th-century glosses) and with metathesis *fidicum, which gave the dialect type fie and the firie of the Chanson de Roland, with /d/ becoming /r/.^[2][3] In the other, an altered *fecatum, then *fedicum, gave the Old French and modern forms.^[2][3] Guiraud instead thought that the Latin word, no longer linked with the fig, was understood as “set blood”, after fīgō (“to fix”) and fingō (“to shape”).^[3][8]

Cognate with Italian fegato, Spanish hígado, Portuguese fígado, Catalan fetge and Romanian ficat.^[4][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as firie in the Chanson de Roland, of the human liver: the hero cuts through le cuer, le feie et le poumon.^[2][4][3] The Latin glosses of Reichenau and Kassel already show ficato and figido in the 8th and 9th centuries.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the human organ, then, from the 16th century, also the liver of animals.^[3] As food it appears in many phrases: foie de veau, pâté de foie and above all foie gras (1690), the liver of a goose or duck fattened by force-feeding.^[3][10]

The liver, a vital organ, was seen in many cultures as the seat of courage, and its supposed loss of colour as a sign of fear; hence foie blanc “traitor” (about 1840) and avoir les foies blancs, shortened to avoir les foies “to be afraid” (1872).^[3][10] In French, however, it is cœur that mainly plays this role.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – The Reichenau glosses have ficato, and the Kassel glosses figido.^[2]
• c. 1100 – Firie in the Chanson de Roland.^[2][3]
• 12th century – The form feie.^[2][3]
• 13th century – The form foie, in a manuscript of Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain.^[2][3]
• 16th century – Used of the liver of animals.^[3][10]
• 1690 – Foie gras is recorded by Furetière.^[10][3]
• 1872 – Avoir les foies “to be afraid” is recorded.^[3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The liver, the large organ in the upper right of the abdomen that secretes bile and takes part in many functions of the body.^[11][12][13]
2. The liver of certain animals as food: du foie de veau, un pâté de foie.^[12][13]
3. Foie gras: the liver of a goose or duck fattened by force-feeding.^[13][3]
4. Crise de foie: a bilious attack, digestive upset.^[12]
5. (familiar) Avoir les foies: to be afraid.^[3][1]
6. (familiar) Avoir les jambes en pâté de foie: to have weak, shaky legs.^[12][3]

Word family

• foie gras

Related words

• figue
• figer
• Latin fīcus

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 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 j k l m n o p q r s t u Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 490b
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
13. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)