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gerbe

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Etymology and origin of the French word gerbe

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1170 Quatre Livres des Rois More words from the 12th century
Borrowed from
Frankish *garba via Old French
Ultimate origin
Frankish *garba

Pronunciation

Forms

gerbe f (plural gerbes)[1] Old French garbe (about 1170) and jarbe (about 1200); gerbe from the 14th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French garbe, borrowed from Frankish *garba (“sheaf”).[2][3][5][6] Cognate with German Garbe and Old Occitan garba.[2][5][3] Littré adds Old High German garba, Dutch garf and Spanish garba, and dialect forms such as Picard guerbe and Walloon jâbe.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Quatre Livres des Rois (about 1170) uses garbe for a bundle of cut and bound ears of grain, a sheaf.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the word had an administrative use: in the Roman de Renart (1180–1205) jarbe is the sheaf taken as a tithe, and lever la gerbe long meant to levy the tithe on the harvest.[2][3][7] It was used for other bundles: of steel bars (1396), of osier (1690) and of cut flowers (1747).[2][3][4]

By likeness of shape it came to name what spurts out and spreads, such as une gerbe d'eau (1690, Furetière), foam or flames, and in the mid-18th century a group of long objects (une gerbe de colonnes).[3][4][2] The same image gave technical senses in artillery (early 20th century), for the spread of shots, in physics (gerbe de particules) and in mathematics (1962).[3][4] Figuratively, from 1864, it is a collection of similar things brought together, as in La Dernière Gerbe, a collection of poems by Victor Hugo.[3][8]

Timeline

  • c. 1170 – Garbe in the Quatre Livres des Rois.[2]
  • 1180–1205 – Jarbe “sheaf taken as a tithe” in the Roman de Renart.[2][3]
  • 14th century – The form gerbe appears.[3][4]
  • 1396 – Garbe names a bundle of steel bars.[2]
  • 1690 – Furetière records gerbe d'eau and gerbe d'osier.[2][4]
  • 1747 – Mme de Graffigny uses it for a sheaf of flowers.[4][3]
  • 1864 – Hugo uses it for a collection of similar things.[4][3]
  • 1962 – The Larousse records a mathematical sense.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A sheaf of cut cereal stalks bound with the ears on one side: une gerbe d'orge.[8][2][1]
  2. (historical) The tithe on crops under the Ancien Régime.[4][7][1]
  3. A large bunch of long-stemmed cut flowers, a spray: une gerbe de glaïeuls.[8][2][1]
  4. Something that spurts out and spreads like a sheaf: gerbe d'eau, gerbe d'étincelles.[8][2]
  5. (artillery) The set of trajectories of the shots of one gun aimed at the same target.[8]
  6. (physics) Gerbe de particules: a shower of secondary cosmic radiation.[8]
  7. (figurative) A collection of similar things brought together.[8][4][1]
  8. (heraldry) A garb.[1]

Word family

  • gerbée
  • gerber
  • engerber
  • gerbier

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has two slang homographs: gerbe “a year in prison” (1878), from the slang verb gerber, and gerbe “vomiting” (about 1980), a back-formation from gerber “to vomit”, mostly in c'est la gerbe “it's sickening”.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 13a
  7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Gerbe.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/gerbe. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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