grimoire

Forms

grimoire m (plural grimoires)^[1] Old French gramaire, gramare, later grymoire (14th-century manuscript) and grammoyre.^[2][3]

Etymology

In an altered form, it is from Old French gramaire, that is grammaire, which in the Middle Ages meant above all Latin grammar, a book the common people could not understand.^[2][4][5][6] The vowel /i/ of the first syllable is usually put down to the influence of words of the family of grimace:^[2] Bloch and Wartburg name grimuche and grimouart,^[5] while Rey, after P. Guiraud, points to grimer (“to scratch”) (the source of grimaud), the grimoire being seen as a scrawl and as the work of the clawed one, the devil.^[4][7]

The French word goes back to Latin grammatica (“grammar, philology”), from grammaticus (“grammatical”), from Ancient Greek γραμματικός (grammatikós, “knowing one's letters”), ultimately from γράμμα (grámma, “letter, writing”) and γράφω (gráphō, “to write”).^[1] Littré, rejecting Diez's Old High German grīma (“spectre”), preferred to derive gramare from Late Latin gramma (“letter”).^[3] Meyer-Lübke lists the word under the Latin one only with a question mark.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

As gramaire it already means a book of magic in the Roman de Troie (about 1165);^[2] the form grymoire is found in a 14th-century manuscript of the fabliau of the king of England and the jongleur of Ely.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Bloch and Wartburg explain the sense from Latin grammar being unintelligible to the uneducated: the word soon came to name a secret book of sorcery.^[5] From the 15th century it was extended to anything confused or impossible to decipher (before 1475, Chastellain), and to an unintelligible work (1668, La Fontaine).^[2][4][9] The phrases savoir le grimoire and entendre le grimoire “to be skilful at something” (1656) have gone out of use.^[4][3] Today the word, poorly understood, mostly suggests old books that are hard to read.^[4]

English borrowed it as grimoire “magician's manual for invoking demons” in 1849.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Gramaire names a book of magic in the Roman de Troie.^[2]
• 13th century – A text speaks of reading the gramaire to conjure.^[3]
• 14th century – The form grymoire appears in a manuscript of a fabliau.^[2]
• before 1475 – Chastellain uses it of something confused and indecipherable.^[2]
• 16th century – Des Accords writes des mots de la grimoire.^[3]
• 1656 – Savoir le grimoire “to be skilful” is recorded.^[4]
• 1668 – La Fontaine uses it for an unintelligible work.^[9]
• 1849 – English grimoire is first recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A book of magic used by sorcerers to call up demons.^[11][2]
2. (pejorative) An obscure, unintelligible book or speech, a piece of writing that is hard to read.^[11][3]

Related words

• grammaire
• grimaud
• Latin grammatica
• English grimoire
• English glamour

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 216a
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert