griller

Forms

griller^[1] Old French graeillier (about 1175, Chrétien de Troyes) and graaillier; the spelling griller dates from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French grille (“gridiron”) + -er, from the noun in its old sense of a cooking grid, a sense now carried by gril.^{[4][5][2][6][1]} The Petit Robert derives it from the masculine noun itself.^[7] The noun goes back to Latin crāticula (“small gridiron”), a diminutive of crātis (“hurdle, grating”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in Wace's Brut (1155) in the sense “to torture by fire”.^[4][6] In Raoul de Cambrai (1180–85) it means “to burn, destroy by fire”: Les nonnains fist ardoir et graaillier “he had the nuns burnt and grilled”.^[4][3] The culinary sense, “to roast food on a gridiron”, is found about 1200.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From roasting, the verb came to mean exposing to too strong a heat (Ronsard, 1550), and was applied to several technical heating processes, as roasting ore in metallurgy (1757).^[4][6] Weakened, it meant “to toast, roast lightly” (coffee, 1840), and familiarly “to smoke” a cigar or cigarette, en griller une (1861).^[4][6][8] In the 20th century it also took the sense of ruining a device by overheating.^[6]

Figuratively, griller de “to burn with impatience, to long to” is found from 1546 in Rabelais, like brûler de.^[4][6] The idea of destruction by fire lies behind old slang senses, “to take” (1827), “to deceive” (1881), “to denounce” (1886) and “to overtake a vehicle” (1911).^[6][4] Still alive are “to go past without stopping”, as with a red light, and “to supplant a rival” (1907).^[6]

Timeline

• 1155 – Wace uses it for torture by fire.^[4][6]
• c. 1175 – Chrétien de Troyes writes the form graeillier.^[2]
• 1180–85 – Raoul de Cambrai uses it for burning and destroying.^[4]
• c. 1200 – First record of the sense “to roast on a gridiron”.^[4][6]
• 1546 – Rabelais uses grisler de figuratively, “to burn with desire to”.^[4]
• 1550 – Ronsard uses it for exposing to too strong a heat.^[4][6]
• 1757 – Metallurgy speaks of roasting ore.^[4][6]
• 1840 – It means “to toast lightly” (coffee).^[4]
• 1861 – En griller une “to smoke a cigarette” is recorded.^[4][8]
• 1907 – It is used for supplanting a rival.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grill, to cook on a gridiron or over embers: griller des côtelettes.^[7][1]
2. To toast bread: pain grillé “toast”.^[7][1]
3. To roast dry, as chestnuts.^[7][4]
4. (technical) To heat a substance, such as an ore, in order to transform it.^[7][3]
5. To scorch, to burn, or to heat to excess: Le soleil lui grillait la nuque.^[7][3]
6. (intransitive) To be roasting hot, to get scorched: On grille sur cette plage.^[1][3]
7. Griller de: to be burning with impatience to do something.^[6][4]
8. (familiar) To smoke a cigarette: en griller une.^[1][8]
9. To burn out a device through overheating.^[6]
10. (familiar) To go through without stopping: griller un feu rouge.^[6][1]
11. (familiar) To get ahead of or supplant a rival.^[6]

Word family

• grille-pain
• grillade

Related words

• gril
• grille

Usage notes

A separate verb griller “to fit with a grille”, formed on grille in its sense of a grating, is dated 1463 by Bloch and Wartburg and the Grand Robert; the TLFi's first sure record is chambre grillée in 1572.^[5][4][2] It also meant “to shut away behind a grille”, in particular in a convent (1616 D'Aubigné, Académie 1740), now archaic.^[4][2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF