menuise

Forms

menuise f (plural menuises)^[1] Also menuisaille (about 1600, Olivier de Serres), especially for lead shot.^[2][3] Anglo-Norman menuse, menuz, menuiz and menuesce.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin minūtia (“smallness”), which in Late Latin meant a very small particle or dust.^[5][6][2] The Latin word is formed from minūtus (“small”), the source of menu.^[3][7] The learned minutie is a doublet of it.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1197 Hélinant's Vers de la mort uses it for small fish.^[5][3] Tobler and Lommatzsch gloss the Old French word as a mass of small, worthless fish, and the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records it from about 1230 for gudgeons or minnows and for a trifle.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

The fishing sense remained in Middle French, where Jean Le Fèvre (1376–1380) has the sea bring along its menuise of small fish.^[9] From the 18th century the word passed into technical vocabularies: in forestry for wood too thin to be sold as cordwood (1724), and in hunting for very small lead shot (1752, Trévoux), also called cendrée.^[5][3][10] Fishermen used it in 1827 for the mixed small fish left in the nets, and Larousse gives it as another name for the sprat.^[5][7]

Timeline

• 1197 – Hélinant uses it for small fish.^[5]
• c. 1230 – Recorded in Anglo-Norman.^[4]
• c. 1600 – Olivier de Serres uses the variant menuisaille.^[3]
• 1724 – A regulation uses it for small wood.^[5]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the sense “small lead shot”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (hunting) Very small lead shot; also called cendrée.^[11][12][5]
2. (forestry) Small wood, thin round logs too small to be sold as cordwood.^[11][5][3]
3. (fishing) Small fry, a mass of little fish of various kinds caught in the nets; also the sprat.^[5][12][7]

Related words

• amenuiser
• menuiserie
• menuisier
• menu
• minutie
• Latin minūtia

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/2, 129b
7. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
8. ^ Tobler, Adolf; Lommatzsch, Erhard (1925–2002), Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, 11 vols., Berlin / Wiesbaden / Stuttgart: Weidmann / Steiner
9. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)