mule

mule¹ she-mule

Etymology tree of mule¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin mūlus

Italian mulo

Latin mūla

French mule

Spanish mulo

From the same root · mule¹

Latin mūliō ← mūlus

Pronunciation

• /myl/^[1]

Forms

mule f (plural mules)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the animal is inherited from Old French mule, inherited from Latin mūla (“she-mule”), the feminine of mūlus (“mule”); in Old French it is also the feminine of mul (“mule”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Rey takes both Latin words, like Latin asinus, to be probably Mediterranean names, perhaps of Asian origin, since the donkey and the mule were imported into the Indo-European lands.^[6]

Cognate with Italian mula, Old Occitan mula, Catalan mula and Spanish mula.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100), meaning the female hybrid of a donkey and a mare.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Besides the animal, the word became a symbol of narrow obstinacy: têtu comme une mule (1690), mule of a stubborn person (1840) and tête de mule (1899).^[2][6] Since the 1980s charger la mule has meant figuratively to overload someone with work, or to exaggerate, especially in drinking, and mule has named a small-time carrier of illegal drugs for a trafficker.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The word appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records testu comme une mule.^[2]
• 1840 – Musset uses it of a stubborn person.^[2]
• 1899 – Tête de mule appears in Zola's Fécondité.^[2]
• 1980s – The senses “drug carrier” and charger la mule appear.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A female mule, the usually sterile hybrid of a donkey and a mare or of a horse and a she-donkey.^[9][10]
2. (familiar) Têtu comme une mule: very stubborn;^[9][2] tête de mule: a stubborn person.^[9][2]
3. A courier carrying drugs for a trafficker.^[10][1]

Word family

• mulasse

mule² slipper

Etymology tree of mule²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin mulleus

French mule

Pronunciation

• /myl/^[1]

Forms

mule f (plural mules)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the slipper is inherited from Latin mulleus (“red shoe”), found about 700 with the spelling ⟨mule⟩; it is the noun use of the adjective meaning “red, purple”, which the classical phrase mulleus calceus applied to the red shoes of the kings of Alba and later of senators who had held a curule magistracy.^{[6][4][11][8]} The Romans connected it with the fish name Latin mullus (“red mullet”).^[6][8]

Rey notes that this assumes the sense “slipper” existed in Old French without being recorded, which is easy to imagine for the familiar name of a crude indoor shoe; otherwise the slipper would be a borrowing from Middle Dutch muil (“slipper”), itself taken from an unrecorded French reflex of the Latin word.^[6] He also mentions a possible Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *mel- (“to stain”) behind the shoe name and the fish name, while noting that most Latin words in ⟨-eus⟩ are not Indo-European.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1314 the word is a veterinary term for chaps or chilblains on the heel;^[4][6] Old French has only this medical sense.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “chilblains on the feet” was used at first in the plural, then from 1530 also in the singular.^[6] The Robert dates the slipper leaving the heel bare to the mid-14th century.^[4][9] Rey first finds it in 1556.^[6] Baiser la mule du pape, to kiss the pope's white slipper embroidered with a cross, is recorded from 1680.^[6][9] English took mule “loose slipper” from French in the 1560s.^[12]

Timeline

• 1314 – First recorded as a veterinary term for chapped heels.^[4][6]
• c. 1350–1360 – First record of the slipper sense in the Robert.^[4][9]
• 1530 – The singular is used for a chilblain.^[6]
• 1556 – The slipper leaving the heel bare is recorded.^[6]
• 1560s – English borrows the word as mule “slipper”.^[12]
• 1680 – Baiser la mule du pape is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light indoor slipper or shoe, with or without a heel, that leaves the back of the foot uncovered.^[9][10]
2. La mule du pape: the pope's white slipper embroidered with a cross.^[9][10]
3. (veterinary, dated) A chilblain or crack on the heel.^[4][6]