Etymologically
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meuble

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Pronunciation

Forms

meuble m (plural meubles)[1] Old French moeble (about 1165), moble (about 1170) and mueble;[2][3][4] meuble from 1238.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French moeble, inherited from Latin mōbilis (“that can be moved; changeable”), whose long ⟨o⟩ became short in popular Latin under the influence of moveō (“to move”).[2][5][6][7] In juridical Latin the adjective was specialised for movable goods, and in late Latin its neuter mōbile (“movable property”) was used as a noun.[2][8] The French noun is the adjective used as a noun.[8] The learned mobile is its doublet.[1]

Compare Occitan moble, Spanish mueble, Portuguese móvel and Italian mobile.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Roman de Tristan (about 1160) the adjective is said of soil that is easily worked; about 1165 moebles in Guillaume d'Angleterre is movable property.[3][8][2]

Semantic evolution

In law, biens meubles (about 1290) are goods that can be moved, opposed to immeubles, and included clothes, tools, weapons and livestock.[3][2] The noun meant movable property in general, figuratively “wealth” (about 1365), and in 1465 Jean de Bueil calls even a prisoner a man's meuble.[8][2]

From 1530 it was restricted to the things that fit out a house, at first collectively, where modern French says mobilier, and in the 16th and 17th centuries also of linen or a silver cup.[2][8] Its present sense, an article of furniture, dates from the 17th century.[2] Heraldry uses it for a figure placed on the shield (1690, Furetière).[8] Phrases include mettre dans ses meubles (1732), to set someone up in a home, sauver les meubles and faire partie des meubles.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1160 – Moeble of soil, in the Roman de Tristan.[3]
  • c. 1165 – Moebles, movable goods, in Guillaume d'Angleterre.[8]
  • 1238 – The spelling meuble.[2]
  • c. 1290 – Biens meubles in law.[3]
  • 1530 – Collective sense “household goods” in Palsgrave.[8]
  • 1606 – Terre meuble in Nicot.[2]
  • 1690 – Furetière records the heraldic sense.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A piece of furniture: a movable object used to furnish a home or a room (bed, chair, table, wardrobe).[10][4][1]
  2. (law) A movable good, personal property: meubles corporels et incorporels.[4][1]
  3. (heraldry) A charge, a figure whose place on the shield is not fixed.[10][1]
  4. (dated) Any object used in the house.[11][8]

Adjective

  1. (law) Movable: biens meubles, as opposed to immeubles.[4][10]
  2. Of soil: loose, easily ploughed: terre meuble.[4][11]

Word family

  • meubler
  • meublé
  • ameublir
  • ameublement
  • démeubler

Usage notes

Sauver les meubles means to save what can be saved from a disaster, and faire partie des meubles to have been somewhere so long that one is part of the furniture.[2]

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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 1a
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)