lavure

Forms

lavure f (plural lavures)^[1] Old French lavadure (about 1050) and laveüre (1155); the form lavure dates from the 14th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French laver + -ure.^[2][3][5][1] The early form lavadure may go back instead to Vulgar Latin *lavātūra, from Latin lavō (“to wash”), recorded in British Medieval Latin about 1125.^[2][4][6][1]

Cognate with Romanian lături (“slops”), Italian lavatura, Old Occitan lavadura, Spanish lavadura and Portuguese lavadura.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1050 in the Vie de saint Alexis as lavadure, water that has been used for washing: the servants of Alexis's father throw their lavadores on his head.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Wace's Brut (1155) has laveüre for the washing water in which the sick bathed.^[2][8] In medicine Henri de Mondeville wrote in 1314 of laveure de char, the reddish fluid running from a wound, and lavure de chair was still a medical term in the 19th century.^[2][8] Technical senses followed: the washing out of gold and silver from goldsmiths' ashes (Cotgrave, 1611), and in bookbinding the washing of a book's leaves before binding (Furetière, 1690); Oudin used it in the graphic arts in 1666.^[2][4][9]

Lavure de vaisselle “dishwater” also came to mean, familiarly, a thin and tasteless soup.^[8][5] From 1849 (Flaubert) it also meant a worthless person;^[2][4] Huysmans used lavure alone for a vile person.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Lavadure appears in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[2]
• 1155 – Wace uses laveüre.^[2]
• 1314 – Henri de Mondeville writes laveure de char in medicine.^[2]
• 14th century – The form lavure appears.^[3][4]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the goldsmiths' sense.^[2][5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the bookbinding sense.^[2][4]
• 1849 – Flaubert uses lavure de vaisselle figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Water that has been used for washing something or someone;^[2][5][1] lavure de vaisselle, dishwater.^[2][5][1]
2. (familiar, figurative) A thin, tasteless soup.^[5][8]
3. (popular) A dirty or vile person.^[2]
4. (medicine, dated) Lavure de chair: a bloody, watery fluid.^[2][8]
5. (technology) The washing of ashes or slag to separate gold or silver; in the plural, the particles of precious metal recovered this way.^[2][5]
6. (bookbinding, dated) The washing of a book's leaves in an acid bath before binding.^[2][8]

Related words

• laver
• lavage
• lavasse
• rinçure
• Latin lavō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 q r s t u 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF