loquet

Forms

loquet m (plural loquets)^[1] Old French and Anglo-Norman loc “latch”, the base of the diminutive, is found from 1174–1176.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably formed from Old French loc + -et, a diminutive of the Anglo-Norman and Norman word for a latch,^[2][4][5][1] which is from Old English loc.^[2][4][5] The TLFi, Rey and the Robert dictionaries give as the other possibility a borrowing of the corresponding Middle Dutch loke with the diminutive suffix -et.^{[2][4][6][7][8]} The English and Dutch words go back, like German Loch and Old Norse lok, to a common Germanic root.^[4]

Littré compares Walloon lokè (“padlock”) and Italian lucchetto.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loquet is first found at the end of the 12th century in Anseïs de Metz, for a latch;^[2] its base loc appears in 1174–1176 in Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence's life of Thomas Becket, for a lock shutting a room.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its sense of a door fastening.^[4] In the navy it named the bar that closes a hatch (1643), and it enters the name couteau à loquet (1834), a knife that can only be closed by pushing back the catch.^[4][9]

Old French loquet passed into English as locket, first “iron cross-bar of a window” (mid-14th century), then from the 1670s a small ornamental case.^[10]

Timeline

• 1174–1176 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses loc “latch, lock”.^[2][3]
• Late 12th century – Loquet appears in Anseïs de Metz.^[2]
• Mid-14th century – English borrows it as locket.^[10]
• Late 14th century – The verb loqueter “to rattle the latch” is recorded.^[4]
• 1643 – Used for the bar closing a hatch.^[4]
• 1676 – The diminutive loqueteau appears.^[4]
• 1834 – Couteau à loquet is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A latch: a simple door fastening whose movable bar drops or turns into a catch (the mentonnet) fixed to the frame: fermer la porte au loquet.^[7][2][9]
2. Specifically, the movable bar of such a fastening, the clenche: lever le loquet.^[7][9]
3. (nautical) An iron bar used to close hatches.^[9][4]
4. Couteau à loquet: a knife that can be closed only by pushing back its spring.^[9][4]

Word family

• loqueteau
• loqueter

Related words

• English locket

Usage notes

The TLFi and the GLLF record a separate loquet “lock of hair” (1530, Palsgrave), later “tuft of wool” (1556), taken from Middle Dutch locke “curl” with the diminutive suffix and related to loque;^[2][3][9] Littré also lists it.^[2][3][9] Littré notes that the final t is not sounded in liaison in ordinary speech.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 474a
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com