foudre

foudre¹ lightning

Pronunciation

• /fudʁ/^[4]

Forms

foudre f (plural foudres)^[4] Old French fuldre, fuildre, fodre; the form foudre dates from the end of the 12th century.^[3][5][6]

Etymology

The word for lightning is inherited from Old French fuldre, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fulgura, the neuter plural of Latin fulgur (“flash of lightning”) taken as a feminine singular.^[3][1][5][7] The Latin noun comes from fulgeō (“to flash, shine”), of a family that Rey traces to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- (“to shine”).^[3] In Classical Latin fulmen meant the thunderbolt and the noun from which this word comes meant the flash.^[8][9][3] The former disappeared in Late Latin and the latter took over its sense.^[8][9][3] The TLFi presents the word as taken from the Latin plural.^[8]

Bloch and Wartburg explain the feminine gender by the Latin plural, but derive the Old French form fuildre from a Late Latin fulgerem, like Old Occitan folzer, and Italian folgore from a form *fulgurem.^[9] Littré also cites foldre.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), for lightning: Chéent i fuldres et menut et souvent “lightning bolts fall there, thick and often”.^[8][6]

Semantic evolution

By comparison the word named the flaming bolt held by Jupiter (1604), in the masculine, and by analogy with its destructive force the firepower of a weapon.^[3] Since lightning was taken for a sign of divine anger, foudre came to mean a condemnation or reproach (1594), now in the plural (1728), and les foudres de l'éloquence (1690) the arguments that crush an opponent.^[3][8] The masculine foudre de guerre (1559), a warrior nothing can resist, is now ironic.^[8][3]

From the suddenness of lightning, coup de foudre meant a disconcerting event (Corneille, 1642).^[8][3] Since 1813 it has meant sudden and violent love.^[8][3] The word is feminine in ordinary use, but elevated language and poetry may make it masculine.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Fuldres appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[8]
• late 12th century – The form foudre appears.^[3][5]
• 1559 – Foudre de guerre “invincible warrior” in Olivier de Magny.^[8]
• 1594 – Used in the masculine for a condemnation.^[8]
• 1604 – Used for Jupiter's thunderbolt.^[3]
• 1642 – Corneille uses coup de foudre for a disconcerting event.^[8]
• 1690 – Les foudres de l'éloquence.^[3]
• 1813 – Coup de foudre “love at first sight” in Jouy.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. lightning, an electric discharge between clouds or between a cloud and the ground: frappé par la foudre (struck by lightning).^[2][10][4]
2. (masculine; mythology, heraldry) The flaming thunderbolt held by Jupiter, or its figure.^[2][11][4]
3. Coup de foudre: love at first sight; formerly a sudden disaster.^[2][8]
4. (plural, figurative) Reproaches, condemnation, the anger of an authority.^[3][11]
5. (masculine, ironic) Un foudre de guerre: a great warrior.^[3][8]

Word family

• foudroyer
• foudroyant
• foudroiement

foudre² large cask

Pronunciation

• /fudʁ/^[4]

Forms

foudre m (plural foudres)^[4] An isolated 15th-century voudre “cask for Rhine wine” comes from voeder.^[3][9]

Etymology

The word for the large cask is borrowed from German Fuder (“cartload, measure for liquids”), recorded in 1669.^{[3][1][2][12]} The German word continues Old High German fuodar, fodar (“cart”), and Middle High German vuoder (“cartload, liquid measure”).^[3][4] Picard had voder “a measure” in the 13th century, and the 15th-century voudre was taken from Middle Dutch voeder (“wine measure”), itself from German.^[3]

Cognate with the English word fother, Dutch voer and Dutch voeder.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Furetière's dictionary (1690) defines it as un grand vaisseau dont on se sert en Allemagne “a large vessel used in Germany”;^[9] an earlier record has six voudres de vin du Rhin “six tuns of Rhine wine” in the 15th century.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Despite its clash with the word for lightning, the cask name survived, but it remained technical or rare, for a cask of 50 to 300 hectolitres.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 15th century – Voudre is used for a cask of Rhine wine.^[9][3]
• 1669 – Foudre is borrowed from German.^[3]
• 1690 – Furetière defines it.^[9][1]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tun, a very large wooden cask of 50 to 300 hectolitres for wine.^[2][11]
2. A foeder, a large barrel for ageing beer or wine.^[4]