linteau

Forms

linteau m (plural linteaux)^[1] Old French lintel, also linteil;^[2][3][4] licteau and luyteau in 1489;^[2][3][4] linteau from 1530.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French lintel (“threshold”), formed by a change of suffix from Old French linter + -el.^[2][3][4] The base (about 1250, in Anglo-Norman) is from Late Latin limitaris (“threshold, entrance”), found in the 6th-century Salic law; it is the Latin adjective līmitāris (“of the boundary”), from līmes (“boundary”), used as a noun under the influence of līmen (“threshold”), which named both the threshold and the lintel of a door.^[2][3][5] Bloch and Wartburg take it instead to be *limitāris, a remaking of līminaris (“of the threshold”) through a confusion of the two Latin nouns.^[6] The ending ⟨-eau⟩ came by attraction of the words in ⟨-el⟩ from Latin ⟨-ellum⟩.^[2]

Old French also had lintier (“threshold”) (about 1200) and lintueil (late 13th century, after seuil).^[2][3] Littré compares Spanish lintel and dintel, and Occitan lindar (“threshold”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as lintel in the Roman de Renart (1175–1180), meaning the “threshold” of a house:^[2][3] Fetes trois croiz sor le lintel (“make three crosses on the threshold”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

By the middle of the 13th century, in a fabliau, it had taken its present sense of the horizontal piece over a door; the old sense “threshold” survives in some dialects.^[2][3] The 15th-century forms licteau and luyteau are cited from documents in Du Cange, and linteau is used by Lefèvre d'Étaples in 1530.^[2][7][4]

Littré also records the sense in locksmithing, an iron bar at the top of a door or gate holding the pivots, and in fortification, the crosspiece to which the stakes of a palisade are fixed.^[7]

Timeline

• 1175–1180 – Lintel “threshold” appears in the Roman de Renart.^[2]
• c. 1200 – Old French lintier “threshold” is recorded.^[2][3]
• c. 1250 – Anglo-Norman linter is recorded.^[2][3]
• mid-13th century – A fabliau uses lintel for the beam over a door.^[2]
• 1489 – The forms licteau and luyteau are found.^[2][3]
• 1530 – The spelling linteau appears, in Lefèvre d'Étaples.^[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lintel: a horizontal piece of wood, stone or metal forming the top of a door or window and carrying the masonry above.^[8][2]
2. (church architecture) The horizontal beam between the doorway and the tympanum of a portal.^[2]
3. (locksmithing) An iron bar at the top of a door or gate that takes the pivots.^[7]
4. (fortification) The crosspiece to which the stakes of a palisade are fixed.^[7]

Related words

• limite
• seuil
• Latin līmes

References

1. ^ a b 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 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 j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert