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fourrage

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Etymology and origin of the French word fourrage

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1160–1174 Wace, Roman de Rou More words from the 12th century
Ultimate origin
Frankish *fodar

Pronunciation

Forms

fourrage m (plural fourrages)[1] Old French forrasge (1160–74), fouraige (late 12th century), refashioned as fourrage in the 13th century.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French feurre + -age, with the collective suffix, as feuillage comes from feuille.[4][2] Wiktionary traces it through Middle French and Old French fourage.[1] The base (Old French fuerre, about 1165) meant “straw” and “fodder”; it comes from Frankish *fodar (“fodder for animals”),[4][5][6] which Rey writes *fodr, *fodra “straw”.[2] The Frankish word is cognate with Middle Dutch voder, Old High German fōtar, German Futter and English fodder.[4][5]

Cognate with Occitan fouratge, Spanish forraje and Italian foraggio.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–74), aler en forrasge means to go foraging for provisions.[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named food for livestock.[2] Since soldiers took the provisions they needed from the country, it was used in the 15th century for “pillage”, a sense since lost;[2] in the army it long meant the hay and straw issued for the horses.[4][3]

The base feurre, fouarre survived in the dialects for “straw”, and in Paris in the Rue du Fouarre;[5] from the early 16th century it also meant the long straw used to seat chairs.[2] The verb fourrager and the noun fourragère were formed from fourrage.[2][5]

Timeline

  • 1160–1174 – Aler en forrasge “to go foraging” in Wace's Roman de Rou.[4]
  • Late 12th century – The form fouraige appears in the Geste des Loherains.[3]
  • 13th century – The form fourrage.[2][3]
  • 15th century – It is used for “pillage”.[2]
  • c. 1357 – The verb foragier means “to cut fodder”.[2]
  • 1822 – Fourragère “field producing fodder”.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. fodder: plants, stems, leaves and roots, fresh or dried, used to feed livestock, apart from grain: fourrage vert, fourrage sec.[4][8][7]
  2. (military, dated) Hay and straw issued for the army's horses.[4][3]

Word family

  • fourrager
  • fourragère
  • fourrageur

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a separate fourrage 2, recorded in 1489 as fourage “furrier's trade”, a derivative of the verb fourrer.[6] In the Petit Robert this second word means the filling of a cake with cream or jam, and the filling itself.[8]

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 l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
Cite this entry

“Fourrage.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/fourrage. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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