mou

Forms

mou (masculine singular before vowel mol, feminine molle, masculine plural mous, feminine plural molles)^[1] Old French mol, feminine mole.^[2][3] Mou gradually replaced mol, which was the usual form until the 17th century;^[3][4] mol survives before a vowel or mute h.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French mol, inherited from Latin mollis (“soft, supple, tender”).^[2][5][6][1] The modern form arose beside the older one as fou did beside fol.^[3] Rey and the Petit Robert connect the Latin word with an Indo-European base also seen in Ancient Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft”) and in the English words mild and melt.^[3][7]

The noun meaning “lungs (of a slaughtered animal)” is the adjective used as a noun, at first in the form mol in the 14th century.^[4][7][3]

Cognate with Romanian moale, Italian molle, Occitan mol, Catalan moll, Spanish muelle and Portuguese mole.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1150 in the Roman de Thèbes, in terre mole “soft earth”, meaning “not hard to the touch”.^[2][3] The Grand Robert dates the word to about 1130.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “not hard” came “soft, comfortable” (about 1170) and, of flesh, “tender, fragile” (about 1200).^[2][3] It was also used of words spoken gently (1174–1176), a use that disappeared in Middle French; when it is said of speech again from the 17th century, it is pejorative, “languid and affected” (1690).^[3][2]

A pejorative strain appears already in Old French: of character, mol meant “weak, cowardly” (about 1200), as later in mou comme une chiffe; of things, “too supple, lacking firmness” (about 1225), and of a fruit “beginning to go bad”.^[3][2] Mols plaisirs (1587) are pleasures that make one soft.^[2] Said of a work of art it is always disparaging, as in touche molle (1762).^[3]

As a noun it first named the calf of the leg (mol de la jambe, 1324), the source of mollet, then the lungs of a slaughtered animal (1393), and in slang the human lung (1902).^[3][2] Sailors say donner du mou for slackening a rope (1821).^[2] In familiar phrases mou stands for a soft part of the body: bourrer le mou à quelqu'un “to fill someone's head with lies” (whence Céline's c'est du mou, 1936) and rentrer dans le mou, where it refers mainly to the belly (1928).^[3][7]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – Terre mole in the Roman de Thèbes.^[2][3]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for “soft, comfortable” in Erec et Enide.^[2][3]
• 1174–1176 – It is used of words said gently.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – Of character, “weak, cowardly”.^[2][3]
• 1324 – Mol de la jambe “calf of the leg”.^[2][3]
• 1393 – The Ménagier de Paris uses it for the lungs of a slaughtered animal.^[2][3]
• 1587 – Mols plaisirs “pleasures that make one soft”.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records it of affected, languid language.^[2][3]
• 1821 – Nautical donner du mou “to slacken a rope”.^[2]
• 1902 – Slang use for the human lung.^[3]
• 1928 – Rentrer dans le mou is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Soft: yielding to the touch or to pressure, the opposite of dur.^[2][9][1]
2. Soft and comfortable, of a cushion or bed.^[1][3]
3. Lacking firmness, limp, slack.^[2][3]
4. (figurative) Of a person: lacking energy or character, feeble, spineless.^[2][1][3]
5. (art) Of a style or touch: lacking vigour.^[3][2]
6. Of the wind: gentle, weak.^[2][10]
7. (anatomy) Parties molles: the soft tissues of the body, as opposed to the skeleton.^[2][9]

Noun

1. Something soft.^[9][1]
2. The lungs or lights of a slaughtered animal, sold as offal, as in mou de veau.^[7][3][1]
3. (nautical) The slack of a rope: donner du mou.^[2][1]
4. (familiar) Bourrer le mou à quelqu'un: to fill someone's head with lies.^[7][3]
5. (familiar) Rentrer dans le mou à quelqu'un: to beat someone up.^[7][3]

Adverb

1. (familiar) Gently, without vigour.^[11]

Word family

• mollasse
• mollesse
• mollir
• molard
• amollir
• mollet
• ramollir
• mollasson

Related words

• mouiller
• mollusque
• émollient
• bémol
• Latin mollis

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y 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 i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 6/3, 49b
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)