monceau

Forms

monceau m (plural monceaux)^[1] Old French muncel and moncel, plural monceaus, monciaus; the form monceau about 1380.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French muncel, inherited from Late Latin monticellus (“hill, hillock”), a diminutive of Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[2][5][6][7] The Grand Larousse takes it as a variant of the Late Latin monticulus.^[3]

Cognate with Italian monticello, Occitan moncel, Spanish montecillo and Romanian muncel.^[8][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as muncel in the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century), already in the sense of a heap or pile.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word soon lost its first sense, “small hill”, which survives only in place names such as Montceau and Monceau.^[5][6] From the 12th century it meant a heap of things piled up like a small hill, and in the Middle Ages à monceaus meant in heaps, in great numbers.^[5][4] The figurative use for an accumulation of abstract things, like montagne or tas, is recorded from Boileau (1667).^[2][5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Muncel appears in the Cambridge Psalter.^[2][3]
• c. 1125 – The derivative amonceler “to pile up” is recorded.^[5]
• c. 1165 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure writes monceaus in the Roman de Troie.^[2]
• c. 1170 – The Livre des Rois has moncel.^[3]
• c. 1380 – The form monceau appears in the Aalma glossary.^[3]
• 1667 – Boileau uses it figuratively for an accumulation.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heap or pile of things lying in a mound: un monceau de pierres.^[9][2][3]
2. (figurative) An accumulation of things: un monceau de sottises.^[3][2]

Word family

• amonceler
• amoncellement

Related words

• mont
• monticule
• Latin mōns

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert