loir

Forms

loir m (plural loirs)^[1] Old French also leir and lère.^[1] Middle French glir (before 1563, La Boétie; 1565, Ronsard) keeps the initial ⟨g⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French loir, inherited from Vulgar Latin *glĭs, glĭris, a popular form with a short /i/ beside Latin glīs (“dormouse”).^[2][3][4][5] Late Latin forms such as glerus, cleres and lerus point to the same type, which dialect forms in Italy, Spain and Portugal also require.^[2] The loss of the initial /g/ is hard to explain; the same thing happened in Old French luissel (“ball of thread”), from Vulgar Latin *globuscellum, and lemoissel, from *glomiscellum.^[2][3][4][1] Rey adds that the Latin word has been compared with a Sanskrit word meaning mouse, and was linked by folk etymology with glīscō (“to swell, grow fat”), because the Romans fattened dormice to eat them.^[3]

The classical form survives in Italian ghiro and in the Berry dialect word liron; Portuguese leirão goes back to the popular form.^[4][3] Cognate also with Occitan glire and Spanish lirón.^[6][7] The southern dialects have a type *glirulus instead.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1202 in the Roman de Renart, in the phrase dormant comme loir “sleeping like a dormouse”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the small rodent.^[3] The phrase dormir comme un loir “to sleep long and deeply” is found from the first texts, since sleep and the dormouse were already linked in Latin;^[3][8] a 13th-century Barlaam et Josaphat by Gui de Cambrai describes two loirs, one white and one black, gnawing at the root of a tree.^[6] In the 16th century Desportes still called the dormice happy because they sleep half the year.^[6] From the long winter sleep come the figurative use of un loir for a lazy person, recorded by Littré, and paresseux comme un loir “extremely lazy” (1893).^[6][8]

The Norman variant leir gave the name of a related animal, the lérot “garden dormouse” (1530, written leyrot).^[3][4]

Timeline

• c. 1202 – Dormant comme loir appears in the Roman de Renart.^[2]
• 13th century – Gui de Cambrai's Barlaam et Josaphat describes two dormice gnawing a root.^[6]
• 1530 – The derivative leyrot (modern lérot) is recorded.^[3][4]
• before 1563 – La Boétie uses the learned-looking form glir.^[2][3]
• 1565 – Ronsard also writes glir.^[2]
• 1893 – The Dictionnaire général records paresseux comme un loir.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dormouse, a small grey rodent with a bushy tail that lives in hollow trees, eats fruit and hibernates for several months.^[9][2]
2. (familiar) Dormir comme un loir: to sleep long and soundly.^[9][8]
3. (familiar) Paresseux comme un loir: extremely lazy.^[8]
4. (dated, figurative) A lazy person.^[6]

Word family

• lérot
• liron

Related words

• Latin glīs

Usage notes

The river name Loir, a tributary of the Sarthe, is unrelated: Wiktionary traces it to a Medieval Latin name Ledo recorded in 616.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. 4, 155a
6. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert