macle

Forms

macle f (plural macles)^[1] Old French mascle (1298) and macque;^[2][3][4] mascle in Anglo-Norman.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The word for the mesh, the heraldic lozenge and the twin crystal is probably borrowed from Frankish *maskila, a diminutive of *maska (“mesh”).^{[5][6][4][7][8]} The Frankish words are reconstructed from Middle Dutch masche and maesche (“mesh, net”), with the diminutive maschel, as well as Old High German māsca and German Masche (“mesh”).^[5][6][4] The TLFi still calls the origin obscure, as the derivation meets phonetic difficulties.^[5][6]

Littré derived it from Latin macula (“mesh”).^[9] Wiktionary takes the heraldic sense from Latin mascula, itself of Germanic origin, and leaves open whether the crystal sense has the same source or comes from the Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1293 in an ordinance of Philip the Fair on fishing, for the mesh of a net: all nets made of thread must be faits a nostre macle, c'est a savoir a la largeur d'un parisis “made to our mesh, that is to say the width of a parisis”.^[5][3][9]

Semantic evolution

From the mesh of a fishing net the word came to mean, in nautical use, a lozenge (1573), and by metonymy a wide-meshed net, a sense still alive in regional speech.^[6][5] By likeness of shape it became a heraldic charge in 1298: a lozenge pierced in the middle by a smaller lozenge.^[6][5][4]

In 1690 Furetière applied it to a kind of stone whose crystals, cut across, show a cross or lozenge;^[5][6][4] Bloch and Wartburg explain the transfer by the four-sided prisms of the stone.^[5][6][4] With the attention turned to the structure of such crystals, the Encyclopédie used it in 1765 for two or more crystals of the same kind grown together, the modern sense in crystallography.^[5][6] The adjective maclé, heraldic from 1298, was applied to crystals in 1795, and the verb se macler “to form twin crystals” followed in 1807.^[6][4]

Timeline

• 1293 – An ordinance on fishing uses it for the mesh of a net.^[5][6]
• 1298 – It is a heraldic charge.^[5][6]
• 1573 – It means a lozenge in nautical use.^[6]
• 1690 – Furetière uses it for a stone showing a cross.^[5][4]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses it for a twin crystal.^[5][6]
• 1795 – Cristal maclé is recorded.^[6]
• 1807 – The verb se macler appears.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (crystallography) A twin crystal: two or more crystals of the same species grown together in different orientations, as in the macle de Carlsbad.^[2][7][5]
2. (mineralogy) A variety of andalousite whose crystals show a dark cross or lozenge.^[5][7]
3. (heraldry) A mascle, a lozenge pierced through the middle by a smaller lozenge.^[2][5][1]
4. (fishing) A wide-meshed net, now regional.^[5][6]

Word family

• maclage
• macler

Usage notes

A different macle, also spelled macre, names the water chestnut, recorded from 1554;^[10] Dauzat, quoted by the Grand Robert, calls it a western word of unknown origin.^[10] The TLFi enters it under macre, dating it from 1542, and the Académie had only the spelling macle until 1835.^[5] Belon in the 16th century writes of the plant que nous nommons macles ou chastaignez d'eau “which we call macles or water chestnuts”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Godefroy, Frédéric (1881–1902), Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IXe au XVe siècle, 10 vols., Paris: Vieweg / Bouillon
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 540a
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert