grille

Forms

grille f (plural grilles)^[1] Old French gradilie (late 10th century), graïlle (about 1200) and greille (1372), then crille (1402), grisle (1466) and grille (1508).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French grille, inherited from Old French graïlle, earlier gradilie, inherited from Latin crāticula (“small gridiron”), a diminutive of crātis (“hurdle, wickerwork, grating”).^[2][3][1] Littré starts from Late Latin graticula, a corrupt form of the Latin word.^[5] The regular outcome greille became the modern form under the influence of the initial ⟨i⟩ of words of similar meaning that go back to Vulgar Latin *crisiculum, the family of grésil.^[3][6]

According to the TLFi the sense “gridiron” seems to have lived only south of a line from Nantes through Langres to Épinal, and the sense “railing” probably came from the same area; it is little known in the dialects.^[2] The masculine form gril was used in the same senses until the 15th century, and the two were kept apart in meaning only in the 17th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

As gradilie in the Passion at the end of the 10th century it names a gridiron of crossed iron bars set over a fire, there as an instrument of torture.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “gridiron” gave way to the masculine gril;^[3] a tale of Bonaventure des Périers still turns on an apprentice who had always heard grille as a feminine where his master meant gril.^[2] From about 1200 the word was applied by likeness of shape to a fence or screen of bars.^[2][3] The grille of a convent parlour is recorded in 1660 and the parlour itself by the Académie in 1694,^[4] and être sous les grilles meant “to be in prison”.^[5][4]

It then became a technical term: the bars that hold the fuel in a furnace (1680, Richelet)^[2] and the bars of a helmet's visor (Furetière, 1690).^[3] From the arrangement of the bars it came to mean a perforated card for reading a cipher (1833, Balzac),^[2][3] the grid of a crossword (early 20th century), squared paper, and a table of times or programmes, or the organisation such a table shows.^[3] English took grille “ornamental grating” from French in the 1660s.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 980 – Gradilie “gridiron” in the Passion.^[6][4][3]
• c. 1200 – Grailles “railing” in Elie de Saint-Gille.^[2]
• 1372 – The form greilles in the accounts of the dukes of Burgundy.^[2]
• 1466 – The form grisle at Nevers.^[2]
• 1508 – The spelling grille in the accounts of the château de Gaillon.^[2][6]
• 1660s – English borrows grille.^[7]
• 1680 – Richelet records the furnace grate.^[2]
• 1694 – The Académie records the sense “convent parlour”.^[4]
• 1833 – Balzac uses it for a card for decoding a cipher.^[2][3]
• Early 20th century – The grid of a crossword.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grating of crossed or parallel bars closing an opening or separating two parts of a building, as at a prison window or a sewer: les grilles d'une prison.^[8][9][10]
2. A railing or wrought-iron fence enclosing a garden or park, and its gate.^[8][9][10]
3. The screen separating nuns or prisoners from their visitors.^[10][8]
4. A grate or rack that holds fuel in a furnace or supports food in an oven.^[2][10]
5. A perforated card used to write and read ciphers.^[2][10]
6. The grid of a crossword.^[10][3]
7. A table showing how a set of facts is organised, or the organisation itself, as a timetable or a pay scale: la grille des horaires.^[10][3]

Word family

• grillage
• griller

Related words

• grésil
• Latin crāticula
• Latin crātis
• English grille
• English grill

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 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 n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)