gril

Forms

gril m (plural grils)^[1] Judeo-French gradil (late 11th century), Old French graïl (about 1190) and greïl (13th century); gril is recorded from 1393.^[2][3][4] In Old French graïl and greïl had two syllables.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French graïl, the masculine form beside grille.^[2][6][4] According to the TLFi and the DHLF it is probably inherited from Latin crāticulum, a rarer masculine form beside crāticula (“small gridiron”), which is a diminutive of crātis (“hurdle, wickerwork”).^[2][6][1] According to the TLFi this masculine type is found only in Gallo-Romance and probably began in the northern (oïl) dialects, while the feminine type also exists in Sardinian.^[2][7] Bloch and Wartburg disagree: they take it to be a form remade from the feminine rather than the outcome of the Latin masculine.^[8] Middle French also had clee, directly from the Latin simplex.^[6]

Until the end of the Middle Ages the masculine and the feminine were used in the same senses.^[2][6] Bloch and Wartburg date the beginning of the split to the 15th century and note that the feminine was the more common form until the end of the 16th;^[8] the DHLF says the split was only complete in the 17th century.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest form, Judeo-French gradil, is found in Rashi's Talmud glosses at the end of the 11th century.^[2][4] Like grille, it first named a gridiron used as an instrument of torture:^[6][2] Marie de France's Purgatoire (about 1190) speaks of souls “qui sur graïl erent rostis” (“who were roasted on a gridiron”).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

From the instrument of torture came the figurative être sur le gril “to be on tenterhooks”, recorded by the Académie in 1740 and comparable to être sur des charbons ardents.^[2][6][9] In the 13th century it also named an open framework of bars closing a passage, like grille.^[2][6]

The kitchen sense, a grill for roasting food over a fire, appears in Middle French in 1393, in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2][6] From the middle of the 19th century it gained technical senses: a slipway for careening ships, the gridiron above a theatre stage, a grating upstream of a lock gate, and, in anatomy, gril costal “the rib cage” (1962), but the cooking sense remains the main one.^[6][3][9]

English took it as grill “gridiron” in the 1680s.^[10]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Rashi's glosses have Judeo-French gradil.^[2][4]
• c. 1190 – Marie de France uses graïl for a gridiron of torture.^[2][3]
• 13th century – Greïl glosses Latin craticula, and the word names a framework closing a passage.^[2]
• 1393 – Gril names a kitchen grill in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2][6]
• 17th century – The division of senses between gril and grille is complete.^[6]
• 1680s – English borrows it as grill.^[10]
• 1740 – The Académie records être sur le gril.^[2][3]
• 1866 – Littré records a technical sense.^[3]
• 1872 – Gril de saint Laurent is recorded by Larousse.^[3]
• 1962 – Gril costal “rib cage” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grill or gridiron: a grid of metal bars, or a ribbed cast-iron plate, for cooking food over a fierce heat;^[9][11][2] des côtelettes sur le gril “chops on the grill”.^[9][11][2]
2. The grilling element at the top of an oven.^[9][11]
3. (historical) A gridiron used as an instrument of torture, as in le gril de saint Laurent.^[9][3]
4. (figurative, familiar) Être sur le gril: to be extremely anxious or impatient, and tenir quelqu'un sur le gril “to keep someone on tenterhooks”.^[9][11]
5. (theatre) The slatted floor above the flies, used for working the scenery.^[9][11]
6. (nautical) A careening slipway on which a ship is set at high tide.^[9][5][11]
7. (technical) A grating upstream of a lock gate.^[9]
8. (anatomy) Gril costal: the rib cage.^[9][11]

Word family

• griller

Related words

• grille
• English grill
• Latin crātis

Usage notes

The older pronunciation without the final /l/ is now archaic: Littré gives gri, with /l/ only before a vowel, and the Grand Robert lists [gʀi] as archaic beside [gʀil].^[5][4]

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 n o p q 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. 2, 1291
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)