fouine

Forms

fouine f (plural fouines)^[1] Old French faïne and foïne, Middle French foine.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French foïne, an altered form of faïne, inherited from Vulgar Latin *fāgīna (“beech marten”).^[2][3][1] The Vulgar Latin word is an adjective used with Latin mustēla (“weasel”) understood, properly the “beech marten”, and is formed from fāgus (“beech”).^[2][5][6] The vowel of the forms with ⟨o⟩ comes from Old French fou (“beech”), the word also behind fouet.^[2][5][7] Bloch and Wartburg compare German Buchmarder, also “beech marten”.^[5] Littré records an older proposal by Diez, from a German word for a kind of marten, but prefers the derivation from the Latin adjective for “of beech”, since the oldest form has ⟨a⟩.^[4]

Cognate with Italian faina, Old Occitan faïna, Spanish fuina and Portuguese foinha.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Foïne first appears in Étienne de Fougères' Livre des manières (1174–1178), naming the beech marten; the form fouine is found in a document of 1237.^[2] In the guild statutes of Étienne Boileau (1260) faine is a fur on which a toll was paid.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the small carnivore, and in the Middle Ages also its fur: a 14th-century gown is described as lined with faynes.^[4] The modern spelling fouine prevailed in the 16th century.^[3][6]

From the late 19th century the animal's reputation for cunning gave the figurative sense of a sly or prying person, often one who means harm;^[3] the Grand Larousse dates a related use, a man who attacks his enemies treacherously, to Chateaubriand in 1827.^[6] The comparison is seen in mine de fouine, a sharp, sly face, used by Saint-Simon.^[7] The verb fouiner (1749) first meant “to slip away”, then “to rummage, pry” (1820), like the marten pushing its muzzle everywhere.^[3]

Timeline

• 1174–1178 – Foïne appears in Étienne de Fougères.^[2]
• 1237 – The form fouine is recorded in a document.^[2]
• 1260 – Étienne Boileau's Livre des métiers lists faine among taxed furs.^[2][4]
• 1508 – The compound chafouin is first used as an insult.^[3]
• 1749 – The derived verb fouiner is recorded.^[3]
• 1827 – Chateaubriand uses it of a treacherous man.^[6]
• Late 19th century – It comes to mean a sly or nosy person.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The beech marten or stone marten, a small, slender carnivore of the marten family, known for raiding henhouses.^[2][7]
2. Its fur.^[4]
3. (figurative) A cunning or nosy person.^[3][6]

Word family

• fouiner
• chafouin

Usage notes

Fouine is also the name of a fishing trident and of a pitchfork for lifting sheaves, a separate word from Latin fuscina (“trident”), recorded as foisne in the 13th century and also spelled foëne or foène.^[2][8][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 d e f g h Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert