jarret

Forms

jarret m (plural jarrets)^[1] Old French garez, garet, later jaret; the ⟨j⟩ replaced ⟨g⟩ from the 12th century, and the modern spelling was fixed in the 16th.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman spellings include gaaret, garret and jarret.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French garet, from Gaulish *garra (“leg”), with the suffix -et.^[6][2][7][3] The Gaulish word is reconstructed from the Celtic languages: Welsh garr (“hock”), Old Irish gairri (“calves of the leg”), Cornish gar and Breton garr (“leg”).^[6][2][8] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Celtic *garros, of uncertain origin.^[1]

The same Gaulish word gave Old Occitan garra (“hock”) and Occitan garro, and, according to Bloch and Wartburg, Spanish garra (“claw”) and Portuguese garra and the Centre dialect jarre (“thigh”).^[6][2][8] Littré cites the Norman garret, Picard garet and Italian garetto.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wace uses garez of a person in the Roman de Rou (1160–1174);^[6][2] about 1170 the Livre des Rois uses it of horses: “Il trenchad les garez des chevals ki traistrent les curres” (he cut the hocks of the horses that drew the chariots).^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

Besides the back of the human knee, the word named from about 1170 the place where the hind leg of an animal bends,^[2][6] and in butchery the cut of meat from the leg, as in jarret de veau, found in Paré about 1560.^[2][4][9] The human sense gave figurative phrases on strength and bearing: avoir du jarret (1845) and tendre le jarret (1867).^[4][9]

From the angle and bulge of a horse's hock came, in 1561, the technical sense of a bump breaking the continuity of a line or curve, in architecture and joinery,^[2][6] and in 1765 that of an elbow formed by two joined pipes.^[4]

The derivative jarretière is first found at the end of the 13th century in the Anglo-Norman masculine form gareter, which English borrowed as garter;^[2] Froissart already speaks of the English order of the Garter, while l'ordre de la Jarretière seems to date from 1606.^[2]

Timeline

• 1160–1174 – Wace writes garez of a person.^[6][2]
• c. 1170 – The Livre des Rois uses garez of horses.^[6][4]
• 12th century – The spelling jaret appears.^[2]
• c. 1560 – Paré writes of a jarret de veau.^[4][9]
• 1561 – Philibert Delorme uses it in architecture.^[6][2]
• 16th century – The spelling jarret is fixed.^[2][3]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses it for an elbow formed by two pipes.^[4]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records avoir du jarret.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The back of the human knee, where the leg bends, the hough: avoir des jarrets d'acier.^[10][6][1]
2. The joint where the hind leg of a hoofed mammal bends, especially the hock of a horse.^[10][1]
3. (butchery) A cut from the upper part of the legs, the shank: jarret de veau, also of pork.^[10][2]
4. (technical) A bulge breaking the continuity of a line or curve, in architecture or joinery, also an elbow formed by two pipes.^[10][6]

Word family

• jarretelle
• jarretière
• jarreter

Related words

• garrot

Usage notes

Littré gives a separate jarret, the name of a fish, from Latin gerres, a fish named by Pliny; the REW lists this jarret under the same Latin word.^[9][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 67a
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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3746