gloutonnerie

Forms

gloutonnerie f (uncountable)^[1] Old French glutunerie, glotonerie; beside it, with the suffix -ie, glutunie, later gloutonie.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French glouton + -erie.^[2][1][5][6] An older Old French noun with the suffix -ie, gloutenie, is recorded in 1119 in the Comput of Philippe de Thaon.^[2][4]

glouton continues Late Latin gluttō (“glutton”), a derivative of gluttus (“gullet, throat”), of the family of the verb behind engloutir.^[7][8] Picoche places these words in the family of the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“to swallow”), probably imitative in origin.^[8] Littré explains the ending through an unrecorded intermediate noun in -ier.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Everart de Kirkham's French Distiques de Caton (12th century) has glutunerie in the sense of greed in eating.^[2][4] A 13th-century psalter reads Cil qui sunt norri en outrage et en gloutonnerie (“those who are brought up in excess and gluttony”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the usual word was the form in -ie: Littré found gloutonnerie only rarely before the modern period, whereas gloutonie runs from the 13th to the 16th century and was still current in the 17th, when Richelet judged it more common than gloutonnerie.^[9][7][4] Gloutonie has since gone out of use.^[9]

The word names the vice of the glutton, man or animal.^[2][4] From the late 19th century it is also used figuratively of any avid appetite, as for reading or conquest.^[10][4][2]

Timeline

• 1119 – Philippe de Thaon's Comput has the form with -ie, gloutenie.^[2]
• c. 1145 – Everart de Kirkham writes glotonerie.^[4][3]
• 13th century – Gloutonnerie appears in a psalter.^[9][7]
• 17th century – Richelet still prefers the older gloutonie.^[9]
• 1886 – First figurative use for an eager appetite.^[10]
• 1921 – Loti writes of a gloutonnerie of conquests.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. gluttony: the greed and voracity of a glutton, person or animal.^[2][11][12]
2. (figurative) Avidity, an eager appetite for something.^[2][4][11]
3. Excessive eating behaviour observed in some forms of dementia.^[12]

Related words

• glouton
• engloutir
• goinfrerie
• voracité
• Latin gluttus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wiktionnaire (French Wiktionary), fr.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
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, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)