mûre

Forms

mûre f (plural mûres)^[1] Old French meure and more;^[2][3] mure is found about 1240, and the spelling mûre in Furetière in 1701.^[2][3] The 1990 spelling reform allows mure.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French meure, inherited from Late Latin mora, the plural of the neuter Latin mōrum (“mulberry, blackberry”) taken as a feminine singular.^[2][6][7][8] Rey gives two views of the Latin word: borrowed from Ancient Greek μόρον (móron), or taken like it from a Mediterranean language; he notes that Chantraine did not rule out an Indo-European origin, comparing Old Armenian մորի (mori).^[6] Wiktionary derives it from the Greek word.^[1]

The modern vowel has been explained in two ways: by the influence of mûrier, in which unstressed /eu/ closed to /y/, as Bloch and Wartburg and Fouché held (the TLFi objects that the tree's name is not attested earlier than the fruit's), or, after the FEW, by mûr, early pronounced with /y/ in Paris, which led country speakers to use /y/ in the fruit's name too by hypercorrection, a pronunciation that then reached Paris.^[2][6] The GLLF puts it down to the tree's name.^[3]

Cognate with Italian mora, Spanish mora, Occitan mora and Portuguese amora.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as meures in Guillaume d'Angleterre (about 1165), for the fruit of the mulberry tree.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the 13th century the word also named the fruit of the bramble, the blackberry, which a fabliau describes growing in a bush;^[2][6] it was distinguished as meures sauvaiges in the 15th century and as more noire qui croist sur les hayes in the Cent nouvelles nouvelles (1464–1467).^[2] Ménage wrote in 1672 that meure was still said in Anjou, but that Parisians now said mure.^[2][9]

Littré records autant en dit le renard des mûres, said of someone who scorns what he cannot have, and the figurative aller aux mûres sans crochet, to undertake something without the means to succeed, found in the 16th century in Des Périers.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Meures appears in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[2][6]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes writes more in Érec et Énide.^[2]
• 13th century – A fabliau uses meure for the blackberry.^[2][6]
• c. 1240 – The spelling mure is found in the Miracles de la Sainte Vierge.^[3]
• 1464–1467 – More noire names the blackberry in the Cent nouvelles nouvelles.^[2][6]
• 1570 – Charles Estienne writes meure blanche, the white mulberry.^[2]
• 1672 – Ménage notes the Parisian pronunciation mure.^[2]
• 1701 – Furetière spells it mûre.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The fruit of the mûrier, the mulberry.^[7][2][5]
2. The black edible fruit of the bramble, the blackberry; also mûre sauvage.^[7][4][5][9]
3. (heraldry) murrey, a dark red.^[1]
4. (Louisiana) A berry.^[1]

Word family

• mûrier
• mûraie
• mûreraie
• mûriforme
• mûron

Related words

• Latin mōrum

Usage notes

Mûre is a homophone of mur and mûr.^[7][4] In the Centre of France the blackberry is also called mûron, a word recorded since 1390.^[7][6]

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 j k l m n o 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
5. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d e 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. 6/3, 152b
9. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette