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lâche

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Etymology and origin of the French word lâche

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
c. 1135, Couronnement de Louis
Ultimate origin
Latin laxus

Pronunciation

Forms

lâche (plural lâches)[1] Old French lasche, lasque.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from the verb lâcher.[2][4][1] The verb comes from Vulgar Latin *lassicō, a dissimilated form of popular Latin *laxicō (“to loosen”), a frequentative of Latin laxō (“to slacken, loosen”), from laxus (“loose, slack”).[3][4][5] Compare Old Occitan lasc.[4]

The moral sense “cowardly” has no clear counterpart in the verb;[3] Rey suggests it refers to a bodily sign of fear, through an image like that of trouille, or that it extends the old sense “weak, without energy”, linked with the old meaning of the verb, “to give way, weaken”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Couronnement de Louis (about 1131–1135), is moral: a lasche king is a cowardly, faint-hearted one: Hé poures rois, lasches et assotez.[2][6][7]

Semantic evolution

About 1200 lasche cuer meant an unmanly, weak heart, and about 1230 the adjective was used of someone cruel with impunity towards the weak.[2] The concrete sense “not tight, slack” appears at the beginning of the 13th century, of a sword loosely belted, and Rutebeuf (1263–1270) rides a lasche regne, with a loose rein.[2][3]

Madame de Sévigné speaks of a style lâche (1676), a loose, unfocused style, and the Académie (1718) records “without vigour”.[2][8][3] Today the adjective is detached in meaning from its verb, divided between “cowardly” and “not tight”.[3] In Quebec French it means “lazy” (1909), as in some regional French usage where faire la saint Lâche is to idle.[9][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1135 – Lasche “cowardly” in the Couronnement de Louis.[2]
  • c. 1200 – “Weak, unmanly”.[2][3]
  • Early 13th century – “Not tight”, of a sword belt.[2]
  • 1263–1270 – A lasche regne in Rutebeuf.[2]
  • 1676 – Style lâche in Madame de Sévigné.[2]
  • 1690 – Tissu lâche in Furetière.[7]
  • 1909 – The Quebec sense “lazy”.[9]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not tight or taut; loose, slack: a slack rope, a loose knot, a loose-fitting garment.[9][10][1]
  2. Of a fabric: loosely woven.[10][7]
  3. (figurative, literary) Lacking energy or concision: un style lâche.[9][10]
  4. (dated, literary) Lacking moral strength; weak, spineless.[9]
  5. Cowardly: shrinking from danger.[10][9][1]
  6. Base, contemptible, attacking those who cannot defend themselves.[10][9]
  7. (Quebec, familiar) Lazy.[9][1]
  8. (phonetics) Lax, with little muscular tension.[10][7]

Noun

  1. A coward.[10][1]

Word family

  • lâcheté
  • lâchement

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 231a
  6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
Cite this entry

“Lâche.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/l%C3%A2che. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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