gourd

Forms

gourd (feminine gourde, masculine plural gourds, feminine plural gourdes)^[1] Old French gurt (about 1112) and gort, feminine gorde;^[2][3][4] gourd is found from about 1160.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French gort, inherited from Latin gurdus (“doltish, coarse”), which in Gallo-Romance came to mean “stiff with cold”.^[5][2][6][7] Rey and the Grand Robert consider the Latin word to be of Iberian origin, and Littré notes that Quintilian called it a Spanish word.^[2][8][9] In the south it took the sense “fat, well fed”.^[6][2]

Cognate with Old Occitan gort, Spanish gordo and Portuguese gordo “fat”.^[6][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1112 as gurt in the Voyage de saint Brendan, meaning motionless, of the wind or air.^[5][2][4] About 1170 Béroul's Tristan has les mains gourdes, hands stiff and numb.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Besides “numb”, the adjective meant “heavy, coarse” as in Latin (1342), whence “clumsy” (about 1498).^[5][2][4] From about 1460 to the classical period it also meant “pompous, opulent, rich”, of people or clothes, a sense from the south, where gort “well fed” appears in the 12th century; it disappeared toward the end of the 17th century.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg describe the same 15th- and 16th-century use as “a gallant man of refined manners”, by a development they find obscure.^[6] The adverb gourdement meant “a great deal” in Middle French, after the sense “rich”.^[2]

La Fontaine has n'avoir pas les bras gourds (1665), and Guy Patin n'avoir pas les mains gourdes (before 1672).^[4] Today the participle engourdi is more common than gourd.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1112 – Gurt “motionless”, of the air, in the Voyage de saint Brendan.^[4][2]
• c. 1170 – Béroul writes les mains gourdes in the Tristan.^[5]
• 1342 – Renart le contrefait uses it for “heavy, coarse”.^[5]
• c. 1460 – The sense “opulent, rich” appears.^[2]
• c. 1498 – The sense “clumsy” appears.^[2][4]
• 1665 – La Fontaine uses n'avoir pas les bras gourds.^[4]
• Before 1672 – Guy Patin uses n'avoir pas les mains gourdes.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Numb, stiff with cold: Il avait les pieds gourds après la marche dans la neige.^[3][5]
2. (figurative) Clumsy, awkward, ill at ease.^[3][4][1]
3. Blé gourd: grain swollen with damp.^[9]

Word family

• dégourdir
• engourdir
• engourdissement
• dégourdi
• gourdement

Related words

• Latin gurdus

Usage notes

N'avoir pas les mains gourdes was said of a skilful thief and of a man greedy for gain, and n'avoir pas les bras gourds meant to be ready to strike.^[9][4]

The Grand Robert lists a separate noun gour or gourd “pool of deep water” (Old French gort about 1112, gors in the 12th century), from Latin gurges (“whirlpool”), and refers to gorge.^[8]

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 l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert 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 c d e f g 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 d 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. 4, 327a
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter