grolle

grolle¹ crow, rook

Pronunciation

• /ɡʁɔl/^[1]

Forms

grolle f (plural grolles)^[1] Also spelled grole; dialect forms include Rennes grôle and Poitou agrole.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the crow is inherited from Late Latin graula, from Latin gracula (“female jackdaw”),^[2][4][5] the feminine of graculus (“jackdaw”).^[6] Littré cites Diez for the derivation and notes that Latin ⟨-acul-⟩ usually gives ⟨-ail⟩ but sometimes ⟨-ole⟩ or ⟨-eul⟩.^[7] The same Latin word gave graille and the verb grailler.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1523, in a document on the felling of crows' nests (abattage des nids de grolles).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century Palissy wrote of crows gathering walnuts.^[7][3] Cotgrave (1611) glossed it as a rook or chough, and the Académie recorded it in 1762.^[3][8] It has remained a regional word, especially in the west of France, used by writers such as René Bazin and Claudel in 1907.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1523 – First record, in the archives of the château de la Barre.^[2]
• 16th century – Palissy uses grole for the crow.^[7]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records it.^[3]
• 1762 – The Académie records it.^[8][9]
• 1907 – René Bazin and Claudel use it.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, especially western France) A crow, rook or jackdaw.^[2][1]

grolle² shoe

Pronunciation

• /ɡʁɔl/^[1]

Forms

grolle f (plural grolles)^[1] Also spelled grole;^[2][10] Old French grole “old shoe”, known indirectly from its derivative grolier “cobbler” (1289).^[2][10]

Etymology

The word for the shoe is inherited from Vulgar Latin *grolla, of unknown origin, which is supported by Old Occitan grola (“old shoe”) (mid-13th century).^{[2][10][11][12]} It was a dialect word of the west and of Franco-Provençal, also very much alive in Occitan, and passed into Parisian slang at the end of the 19th century.^[2][10][12]

Since Old French grole also meant a flask-shaped vessel, Rey notes a shared idea of a rounded, hollow object; from it P. Guiraud proposed a link with groler, croler “to shake”, from a Gallo-Romance intensive of Latin rotō (“to turn”), a reconstruction Rey calls very hypothetical.^[10][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its derivative groliers “cobblers” is recorded in 1289 in the cartulary of the bishopric of Autun, so grole “old shoe” existed in the 13th century;^[2][10] the word itself is found in 1574, in an inventory from Seyssel.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From “worn shoe, old slipper” in the dialects, the word became a general slang word for a shoe in Paris at the end of the 19th century.^[12][2][11] It is mostly used in the plural, and in the 20th century in traîner ses grolles “to knock about, to wander from place to place”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1289 – The derivative groliers “cobblers” is recorded at Autun.^[2]
• 1574 – Grole in an inventory from Seyssel.^[2]
• late 19th century – It enters Parisian slang.^[2][12]
• 1948 – Cendrars uses traîner ses grolles.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (slang, familiar, usually plural) A shoe.^[2][11]
2. Traîner ses grolles: to knock about, to wander from place to place.^[2]