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malle

Etymology and origin of the French word malle

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
late 11th century, Rashi (male)
Borrowed from
Frankish *malha via Old French
Ultimate origin
Frankish (*malha)

Pronunciation

Forms

malle f (plural malles)[1] Old French male;[2] malle from about 1200.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French male (“leather bag, travelling chest”), borrowed from Frankish *malha (“leather bag”),[3][2][4][5][1][6] reconstructed from Old High German malha (“satchel”) and Middle Dutch male (“travelling bag, chest”) (modern Dutch maal).[3][2] Wiktionary takes the Frankish word from Proto-Germanic *malhō.[1]

English mail, borrowed from Old French about 1205, is the same word.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's glosses (late 11th century) have male for a leather bag,[3][7] and the Couronnement de Louis (about 1135) uses it for a travelling chest of wood or leather.[3]

Semantic evolution

The trunk for a traveller's belongings gave faire ses malles “to get ready to leave” (Diderot, 1745) and slang se faire la malle “to clear off” (1935).[3][2][7] Trousser en malle “to carry off by surprise” (16th century) led to troussé en malle “dead” (1660), and faire sa malle meant “to die” in 1883.[3][2]

The postbag sense (1569) gave malle-poste “mail coach” (1793) and malle des Indes (1850), after English mail;[2][3] by anglicism la malle was also the Calais–Dover packet service (1923), and in Quebec malle still means “mail”.[2][3] The car boot was once called la malle arrière.[8]

Timeline

  • late 11th century – Male “leather bag” (Rashi).[3][7]
  • c. 1135 – A travelling chest.[3]
  • c. 1200 – The spelling malle.[3][2]
  • 1569 – The postbag.[2]
  • 1745 – Faire ses malles.[3][2]
  • 1793 – Malle-poste.[3][4]
  • 1935 – Se faire la malle.[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A trunk, a large travelling chest.[8][1]
  2. Se faire la malle (familiar): to clear off, run away.[8][3]
  3. (historical) The mail coach (malle-poste); the mail service.[8][3]
  4. (dated) The boot of a car.[8]

Word family

  • mallette

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 508a
  7. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert

Related etymologies

  • houx · also from Frankish
  • halle · also from Frankish
  • gué · also from Frankish
  • canif · also from Frankish
Cite this entry

“Malle.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/malle. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·