glaner

Forms

glaner^[1] Old French glener (13th century) and Middle French glainer (late 14th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French glener, inherited from Late Latin glenō (“to glean”), recorded in the Salic Law in the 6th century.^[4][5][6] The Late Latin verb is of Gaulish origin, built on a stem Gaulish *glenn- also seen in Old Irish doglinn (“he gathers”).^[6][5][4][7] The English verb glean is of the same Celtic origin.^[6][8] Littré still weighed older proposals, a Welsh word for “clean” and words for a sheaf or handful.^[9]

The word is found only in Gallo-Romance, as in Old Occitan glenar;^[5] the older form went out of the standard language around the 16th century but is still as common as the standard form in the northern dialects.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Gautier de Coinci uses glaner about 1223, and Huon de Méry's Tournoiement de l'Antéchrist (early 13th century) has the literal sense, picking up the ears of grain left behind by the reapers: Je l'ai glané molt volentiers (“I gleaned it very willingly”).^[4][3][9] A figurative use, God gleaning monks out of the world, appears in the Reclus de Molliens in the first quarter of the 13th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is gathering the ears of grain that the harvesters have missed;^[6] a 13th-century ordinance in Tailliar's collection forbids the gleneres and gleneresses to glean on feast days and Sundays.^[9] From the late 14th century it was used figuratively of collecting scattered bits to make use of them (Deschamps, glainer sa moisson).^[3][6][9] Voltaire used it in 1756 for picking up what others have left, and Lamartine in 1830 for gathering wood, flowers and the like here and there; in this last sense glaner took over from glander, to which it is not related.^[3][6]

The English verb glean was taken from Old French in the early 14th century, first in a figurative sense.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – Gautier de Coinci uses glaner.^[4]
• Early 13th century – Huon de Méry uses it of picking up ears of grain; the Reclus de Molliens uses it figuratively.^[3][4]
• 13th century – The variant glener is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1291 – The agent noun gleneor “gleaner” appears.^[4]
• Early 14th century – English borrows it as glean.^[8]
• Late 14th century – Deschamps writes glainer in the sense “gather here and there”.^[3][6]
• 1596 – First record of glainage, later glanage.^[4]
• 1756 – Voltaire uses it for gathering what others have left.^[3]
• 1830 – Lamartine uses it for picking up wood, flowers and the like.^[3][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To glean: to pick up the ears of grain left in a field after the harvest; also used absolutely or with the field as object: glaner un champ.^[10][4][9]
2. To gather here and there, piece by piece: glaner du bois sec “to gather dry wood”.^[3]
3. (figurative) To collect scattered bits of information or knowledge that can be put to use: Elle a glané quelques renseignements au café. “She picked up a few bits of information at the café.”^[10][9]

Word family

• glanage
• glane
• glaneur
• glanure

Related words

• Late Latin glenō
• English glean

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 i 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 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 h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 154b
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert