Etymologically
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manger

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /mɑ̃.ʒe/[1]
  • IPA (Paris): [mɑ̃ː.ʒe][1]

Forms

manger[1] Old French mangier, mengier, manger from the 13th century, Old French also had manjuer, from a form keeping the long u.[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French mangier, inherited from Latin mandūcō (“to chew; to eat”).[4][5][6][7][1] The Latin verb was formed on mandūcus, the glutton of Roman comedy from Plautus onward, with huge jaws, itself from mandō (“to chew”).[4][5][8]

“Mandūcāre”, “to work one's jaws”, was a popular, expressive verb; it replaced the irregular edō (“to eat”), whose short forms clashed with those of “esse” “to be”.[4][5][6] Petronius gives it to vulgar speakers, and the Vetus Latina uses it where the Vulgate has comedō; the latter survives in Spanish comer and Portuguese comer.[4][6]

Cognate with Romanian mânca and Occitan manjar; Italian mangiare and Catalan menjar were borrowed from French.[4][6][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

At the end of the 10th century the Passion of Clermont uses it for chewing and swallowing food.[4] About 1100 the Chanson de Roland has N'en mangeront ne lou, ne por, ne chien “neither wolf nor pig nor dog shall eat of them”.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century it took figurative senses: “to wear away, eat into” (about 1236), “to spend (money) on food”, and “to itch”, a sense kept only in démanger.[4][5] Later came manger ses mots (1531), manger des yeux (1694) and manger le morceau “to confess” (1798).[5][4]

Proverbs and phrases include l'appétit vient en mangeant (1636), manger pour vivre et non pas vivre pour manger (1643, popularised by Molière), manger comme quatre (1835) and manger les pissenlits par la racine (1867).[5][10] Madame de Sévigné calls a girl à manger, “delightful” (1679).[10] The infinitive used as a noun, le manger, is as old as the verb.[11]

Timeline

  • Late 10th century – Mangier in the Passion of Clermont.[4][11]
  • c. 1165 – Mangeoire.[6]
  • c. 1236 – “To eat into”, in Guillaume de Lorris.[4]
  • 1422 – Mangé de vers, moth-eaten.[4]
  • 1531 – Manger ses mots.[5]
  • 1636 – L'appétit vient en mangeant.[5]
  • 1798 – Slang manger le morceau.[4]
  • 1867 – Manger les pissenlits par la racine.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To eat: manger du pain, (absolute) to have a meal: manger au restaurant.[8][1]
  2. To eat into, wear away: mangé aux mites.[5][4]
  3. To use up, squander: manger son héritage.[5][3]
  4. Manger ses mots: to mumble, manger des yeux: to devour with one's eyes.[5]
  5. (slang) Manger le morceau: to confess, inform.[4][5]

Noun

  1. (familiar) Food: apporter son manger, en perdre le boire et le manger.[12][8]

Word family

  • mangeable
  • mangeaille
  • mangeoire
  • mangeur
  • démanger
  • mange-tout
  • blanc-manger
  • manducation
  • Latin mandūcō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  3. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/1, 160a
  8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
  11. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)