galère

Forms

galère f (plural galères)^[1] Middle French also gallere (before 1520) and gualleres, galleres in Rabelais.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan galera, a naval term in Catalan since 1237 (as gualera), formed from galea by a change of suffix.^[2][4][5][6] Wiktionary gives the Medieval Latin form galēra as a variant of the classical form.^[1] The Latin word is from Byzantine Greek γάλεα (gálea),^[2][5][4][1] which Rey thinks is probably a variant of the classical Greek word for a shark, the ship being named for its speed.^[4] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert also name Old Italian galea beside the Catalan word.^[7][8]

The Latin word had already given Old French galée and galie, both found in the Chanson de Roland, which it replaced.^[5][4] Cognate with Spanish galera and Italian galera.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1402, in the account of Jean de Béthencourt's conquest of the Canary Islands, meaning a warship driven by oars; the form gallere “rowing boat” is found before 1520 in Seyssel's translation of Appian.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word named the oared warship of antiquity and the long, low, mainly rowed warship of the Mediterranean that was used until the 18th century.^[2][8] Because convicts were sentenced to row on the state galleys, estre condemné aux galeres is recorded in 1549 and les galères came to mean that penalty;^[2][4] after the penalty was abolished, the word was applied by extension to forced labour.^[2][4] The TLFi and the DHLF date the abolition to 1791, the Petit Robert to 1748.^[2][4][8] The phrase vogue la galère ! “come what may” goes back to Rabelais in 1552,^[4][6][3] and Molière's line Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère ? from the Fourberies de Scapin became proverbial for an unwise venture.^[2][8]

From 1690 (Furetière) galère was used figuratively of a trade, situation or place where life is very hard.^[4][6] This literary metaphor became everyday speech in the 20th century: c'est la galère ! “it's awful” is recorded in 1944, the adjectival c'est galère in the 1980s, the verb galérer in 1980 and être en galère in the 1990s, a phrase that seems to come from Provence, where envoyer quelqu'un en galère meant to send someone to the devil.^[4] By likeness to the ship, it also named an unsprung Spanish cart, a small wheeled harrow in gardening, a long brick furnace in chemistry and the Portuguese man-of-war.^[2]

Timeline

• 1237 – Catalan gualera is recorded as a naval term.^[2]
• 1402 – First French record, in the account of the conquest of the Canary Islands.^[2][5]
• Before 1520 – Gallere “rowing boat” in Seyssel's translation of Appian.^[2][6]
• 1549 – Robert Estienne records estre condemné aux galeres.^[2]
• 1552 – Rabelais writes Vogue la galere.^[4][6][3]
• 1568 – The derivative galérien appears, first meaning a rower on a galley.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records the figurative sense of a hard condition.^[6][4]
• 1944 – C'est la galère ! is recorded.^[4]
• 1980 – The verb galérer appears.^[4]
• 1980s – C'est galère is used as an adjective.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (antiquity) A galley, a warship driven by oars and sails: une galère à trois rangs de rames, a trireme.^[2][8]
2. (historical) A long, low, decked warship of the Middle Ages to the 18th century, moving mainly by oars.^[2][8][6]
3. (historical, in the plural) Les galères: the penalty of rowing in the state galleys, and by extension forced labour: Le voleur fut envoyé aux galères.^[2][8]
4. (figurative, familiar) A hard task or situation, an ordeal: c'est la galère, quelle galère !, also mener une vie de galère.^[8][2][4]
5. (by analogy) A small wheeled harrow used in gardening, a long brick furnace in chemistry, or the Portuguese man-of-war.^[2]

Adjective

1. (familiar) Hard, tiresome: C'est galère de trouver une place pour se garer ici.^[8][4]

Word family

• galérien
• galérer

Related words

• galéasse
• galée
• galion
• galiote
• Catalan galera

Usage notes

Vogue la galère ! means “come what may”,^[8][4] and Que diable allait-il faire dans cette galère ?, after Molière, is said of someone who has got into a bad business.^[2][8] The old form galée survives in printing for the board on which the typesetter places the composed lines (1523).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
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 f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert