lard

Forms

lard m (plural lards)^[1] Old French lart; the spelling lard dates from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French lart, inherited from Latin lardum (“fat, bacon fat”), a contraction of the older lāridum.^{[4][5][3][6][1]} The origin of the Latin word is unclear;^[3][7] Littré compares Ancient Greek λαρινός (larinós, “fat”).^[3][7]

Cognate with Italian lardo, Spanish lardo, Catalan llard and Old Occitan lart.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Anglo-Norman Dictionary has it from 1136–1137 for fat bacon or pork.^[8] In continental French it is first recorded in Alexandre de Paris's Roman d'Alexandre (1180–1190), for the fat between the flesh and the skin of animals, in frit comme lars en paiele “fried like bacon in a pan”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word came to mean especially the firm fat under the skin of the pig, used as food.^[3] Already in the 12th century it was used familiarly of human flesh and fat (1180–1190), above all in phrases such as Rabelais's frotans leur lard (1534), for sexual intercourse, and faire du lard “to grow fat” (1611).^[4][3] Insults joined the two metonymies of fat for the person and fat for the pig: tête de lard and gros lard.^[3] In central France it can mean the pig itself or pork, a sense still alive in Canadian French.^[3] Rentrer dans le lard “to attack” dates from 1920.^[3]

Cooking terms include lard gras (15th century) and petit lard (1680).^[4][3] By analogy the word was applied to whale blubber, to the sapwood under the bark (1701) and to a white talc, pierre de lard (1765).^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1136–1137 – First Anglo-Norman record.^[8]
• 1180–1190 – Alexandre de Paris uses lars for animal fat and for human flesh.^[4][3]
• 1389 – Eustache Deschamps has lart pour larder.^[4]
• 1534 – Rabelais uses it in an erotic sense.^[4][3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records faire du lard.^[4][2]
• 1656 – Oudin records vilain comme lard jaune “miserly”.^[9]
• 1680 – Richelet records petit lard.^[4]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie has pierre de lard “steatite”.^[4]
• 1920 – Rentrer dans le lard is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The firm fat under the skin of the pig, used in cooking; bacon: lard gras (all fat), lard maigre or lard de poitrine (streaked with lean), lard fumé.^[10][11][1]
2. By extension, the blubber of whales and seals.^[10][3]
3. (familiar) Human fat: faire du lard, to grow fat, especially by idleness.^[10][11]
4. (popular) The skin: se gratter le lard.^[11]
5. Rentrer dans le lard à quelqu'un: to go for someone, physically or in words.^[10][11]
6. (dated) A pig; hence gros lard, an insult for a fat man, and tête de lard, a stubborn person.^[10][3]

Word family

• lardon
• larder
• lardoire
• délarder
• entrelarder
• papelard
• lardacé

Related words

• Latin lardum

Usage notes

Ne pas savoir si c'est du lard ou du cochon is said when one cannot tell what something really is.^[10] Cotgrave records the proverb Qui a mangé le lard, ronge l'os.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 5, 189a
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 d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)