légume

Forms

légume m (plural légumes)^[1] Middle French lesgum (14th century) and legum (1550); légume is feminine in 1575 and masculine in 1611, and both genders were used in the 17th century.^[2][3][4] The inherited Old French form was leün (also leun).^[2][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin legūmen (“plant whose fruit is a pod, pulse”).^[2][4][6][1] It replaced the inherited leün, recorded from about 1170 to the 15th century, which survives in Franco-Provençal and part of the Occitan area, as Franco-Provençal lion in French-speaking Switzerland and Savoy.^[2][4][6]

The Latin word has been connected with legō (“to gather”) since antiquity;^[5][7][8] Rey calls this a folk etymology and thinks it rather a loan from an unknown non-Indo-European language,^[4] and Etymonline calls its origin unknown.^[8]

Cognate with Old Occitan legum, Catalan llegum, Spanish legumbre and Italian legume.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 14th century, as the collective lesgum “leguminous plants”, in a charter of Louviers.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Until the 17th century the word stayed close to the Latin, covering the garden plants gathered for food but above all the edible seeds in pods: peas, beans, lentils.^[4] Furetière in 1690 still says it applies first to grains in pods and by extension to asparagus, artichokes and other garden plants;^[2] the modern sense took shape in the 17th and 18th centuries, as herbe “vegetable” declined.^[4] Légumes verts and légumes secs are recorded by Littré.^[7]

The slang grosse légume “high-ranking officer” dates from 1832 and gros légume “important person” from 1840; the feminine kept this sense when the masculine prevailed elsewhere.^[2][4] The figurative use for a patient in a prolonged vegetative state is a calque of English vegetable.^[4] In African French the word especially means edible leaves.^[4]

Timeline

• 14th century – Lesgum in a charter of Louviers.^[2]
• 1575 – Légume as a feminine in Thevet's Cosmographie.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave gives it as masculine.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière extends it to garden vegetables in general.^[2]
• 1715 – The derivative légumier “vegetable garden”.^[4]
• 1832 – Grosse légume “senior officer” in slang.^[2]
• 1840 – Gros légume “important person”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vegetable: a garden plant some part of which is eaten, and that part: une soupe de légumes.^[9][2][1]
2. Légumes secs: pulses, seeds eaten dry, such as lentils and beans, as against légumes verts, green vegetables.^[7][5]
3. (botany) The pod of a leguminous plant.^[2][5]
4. (familiar) Une grosse légume: a bigwig, an important person.^[2][4]
5. (familiar, offensive) A patient in a vegetative state.^[4][1]

Word family

• légumier
• légumineux
• légumine
• légume-racine

Related words

• Latin legūmen
• English legume

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 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 i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert