meule

meule¹ millstone, grindstone

Etymology tree of meule¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin mola

Aromanian moarã

French meule

Italian mola

Romanian moară

Spanish muela

From the same root · meule¹

Latin immolō ← mola

Latin molāris ← mola

Latin molārius ← mola

Latin molīnus ← mola

Romanian morar ← mola

Pronunciation

• /møl/^[4]

Forms

meule f (plural meules)^[4] Old French muele (about 1170) and mole (13th century); meule is found from 1390.^[1][5]

Etymology

The word for the millstone is inherited from Old French muele, inherited from Latin mola (“millstone”).^[1][6][5][2] The Latin noun is derived from molō (“to grind”), the source of moudre; it also named the mill itself and the sacrificial meal (whence immoler), and its plural was used in the Vulgate for the grinding teeth (whence molaire).^[5] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, crush”).^[4]

Cognate with Italian mola, Spanish muela, Catalan mola, Occitan mola, Portuguese mó and Romanian moară.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Livre des Rois (about 1170), muele is a millstone: a woman throws une piece de muele from the wall and kills a man.^[1][8]

Semantic evolution

From the stone that grinds grain, the word passed by likeness of shape or working to other things.^[5] The grindstone used to sharpen or polish is recorded in the late 14th century,^[1][9] and a thick round of cheese in 1653.^[5][3] In the 13th century meule also meant a molar, a sense soon displaced by molaire but revived in slang for any tooth (1867).^[5] About 1970 it became a familiar name for a motorcycle, whose engine turns like a millstone.^[5][4] In Swiss French faire la meule means to pester someone.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Muele appears in the Livre des Rois.^[1]
• 13th century – The form mole in Renaut's Galeran, and the sense “molar”.^[1][5]
• late 14th century – First used for a sharpening wheel.^[1][9]
• 1390 – The spelling meule is found.^[1][5]
• 1653 – Used for a large round cheese.^[5][3]
• 1867 – Slang revives the sense “tooth”.^[5]
• c. 1970 – It becomes a familiar word for a motorcycle.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A millstone, a heavy flat stone cylinder used to grind grain.^[3][1]
2. A grindstone, an abrasive wheel for sharpening or polishing; also a dentist's rotary grinding tool.^[3][1]
3. A large round cheese shaped like a millstone: une meule de comté.^[3][1]
4. (slang) A motorbike.^[4][5]

Word family

• meuler
• meulier
• meulière
• meulerie
• meulard
• molette

meule² haystack, stack

Pronunciation

• /møl/^[4]

Forms

meule f (plural meules)^[4] Old French moule (first half of the 12th century).^[1][2]

Etymology

The word for the haystack is probably from French meule¹ used as a metaphor, by likeness of its round, massive shape.^[1][2][3][5] Rey notes that Latin mola had no such sense, but that Latin mēta (“cone-shaped object”) was applied to a haystack in the same way.^[5] Other origins have been proposed: Pierre Guiraud, cited by the Grand Robert, suggested mōlēs (“mass”) influenced by the millstone word;^[2] Littré connected the old form moule with mētula, a diminutive of the same word;^[8] and Meyer-Lübke derived Old French mule from Gaulish *mūla (“haystack”), the modern word being a back-formation from Middle French meulon, since the oldest form has /y/, which many outlying dialects keep.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Oxford Psalter, in the first half of the 12th century, has moule de frument, a stack of wheat.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a stack of hay or sheaves, common from the 16th century and very much alive in the dialects, gave further senses by analogy.^[5] In hunting it named the rough burr at the base of a deer's antler (1376); with the idea of a heap it came to mean a mushroom bed of compost and manure (1715) and a pile of wood covered with turf and burnt into charcoal (1868).^[1][5] In 20th-century slang les meules are the buttocks, perhaps from their round shape.^[5][3]

Timeline

• first half of the 12th century – Moule de frument in the Oxford Psalter.^[1]
• c. 1170 – Meule in the Livre des Rois.^[1]
• 1376 – The hunting sense “burr of an antler” in Modus et Ratio.^[1]
• 1715 – La Quintinie uses it for a mushroom bed.^[1][5]
• 1753 – The Encyclopédie uses it for the brickwork round a bell-founder's furnace.^[1]
• 1868 – Littré records the charcoal-burner's stack.^[1][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A haystack, a large stack of hay or sheaves built in the field, often thatched: les enfants jouaient derrière la meule.^[3][1]
2. A stack of wood covered with turf or leaves, burnt slowly into charcoal.^[3][1]
3. A bed of compost and manure for growing mushrooms; the mushroom farm itself.^[3][1]
4. (hunting) The burr at the base of a deer's antler.^[1]
5. (familiar) Les meules: the buttocks.^[3][5]

Word family

• meulette