geôle

Forms

geôle f (plural geôles)^[1] Anglo-Norman gaiole (1101–1106), Old French gaole (about 1155), jaiole (about 1220) and jeole (13th century); geôle dates from the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French geole, inherited from Old French jaiole, inherited from Late Latin caveola (“little cage”), a diminutive of Latin cavea (“hollow, cage”), from cavus (“hollow”).^{[5][4][2][6][7]} Wiktionary notes the later Medieval Latin gabiola, and explains the long vowel, marked by the circumflex, by the loss of the first syllable.^[1] cage comes from the same Latin word.^[5][8]

Cognate with Walloon gaioule, Picard gayole (“prison”), Portuguese gaiola and Italian gabbiuola (“little cage”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in the Anglo-Norman Voyage de saint Brendan (1101–1106) as gaiole, meaning a prison.^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word also meant “cage” until the 16th century, a sense still alive in the north-east of France, in French-speaking Switzerland and in the far south-west.^[6][3] At the end of the 12th century en ma jaiole meant “in my power”, and, from the 14th century it could stand for moral bondage.^[5][4][2] In the sense “prison”, from the 12th century, it competed with chartre and prison, and it is now archaic or literary; from 1580 it also named any place where one lives as if imprisoned.^[6][4][2]

The derivative geôlier lasted longer in use, and both words kept some life in poetry into the 20th century, as in the French title of Wilde's Ballade de la geôle de Reading.^[4]

Timeline

• 1101–1106 – Gaiole “prison” in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[5]
• c. 1155 – Wace writes gaole.^[2][9]
• Late 12th century – En ma jaiole “in my power” in Richeut.^[5]
• c. 1220 – Gautier de Coinci writes jaiole.^[2][3]
• 13th century – Jeole in the Roman de Renart.^[2][9]
• 14th century – The form geôle appears.^[4][3]
• 1580 – Montaigne uses it for a place felt as a prison.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or literary) A prison, a cell or cachot.^[8][2][10]
2. (literary) A place where one lives as if imprisoned.^[2][4]
3. (figurative) Moral bondage.^[2]

Word family

• geôlier
• enjôler
• geôlage

Related words

• cage
• Latin caveola
• Latin cavea

Usage notes

The word is pronounced /ʒol/; the Grand Robert calls the pronunciation [ʒeol] faulty.^[3] It is written with a circumflex on the ⟨o⟩, like geôlier.^[10] Larousse also records it in the French of the Antilles.^[10]

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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f 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
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 555b
8. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)