nielle

nielle¹ corncockle; cereal blight

Pronunciation

• /njɛl/^[1]

Forms

nielle f (plural nielles)^[1] Judeo-French neele (late 11th century), then niele (12th century), refashioned after the Latin.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

The word for the corncockle is inherited from Old French neele, inherited from Late Latin nigella (“nigella, corncockle”), the substantivised feminine of Latin nigellus (“blackish”), a diminutive of niger (“black”).^{[2][3][5][1][6]} The plant was named for its black seeds.^[3] The form niele, from the 12th century, remade the older one after the Latin ⟨i⟩.^[2][3][5] The Latin word was borrowed again in 1538 as nigelle.^[5]

Cognate with Picard nelle, Old Occitan niela, Catalan niella, Spanish neguilla and Italian nigella.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears as neele in Rashi's glosses (late 11th century), for a plant with black, poisonous seeds that grows among wheat.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The plant name covers the corncockle, whose poisonous seeds spoil flour when they are ground with the wheat;^[3][7] Littré notes that two different black-seeded plants were confused under the name nielle des blés.^[3][7]

From 1538 the word also names a blight of cereals that turns the ear into a blackish dust.^[3][5][2] The DHLF and Bloch and Wartburg see a comparison between the black seeds of the plant and the blackened grains of diseased wheat, which the farmer had to sift out like the seeds.^[3][5] The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert see in it the influence of the Old French homonym niele (1190), a fog thought to harm crops, from Latin nebula (“mist”);^[9][10] Littré took the blight word to be that word alone, only confused with the plant name.^[7]

The blight sense gave bled nyelé (1507–1508), then the verb nieller “to blight” and niellure (1558).^[3][2]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Neele in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• 12th century – The form niele in the Mahzor Vitry.^[2]
• 1507–1508 – Bled nyelé “blighted wheat”.^[2][3]
• 1538 – First use for the cereal blight.^[3][5]
• 1558 – Niellure “blight of the wheat”.^[3][5]
• 16th century – Olivier de Serres counts nielle among the impurities to clean out of wheat before milling.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) Nielle des blés: the corncockle, a hairy plant with large red flowers and black, poisonous seeds, once common in wheat fields.^[11][10][2]
2. (botany, rare) Nigella.^[10][12]
3. (agriculture) A blight of cereals, especially wheat, which spoils the ear; it is caused by an eelworm, and has been confused with smut: Cette année, la nielle a gâté une partie du blé.^[10][11][2]

Word family

• nieller
• niellure

nielle² niello

Pronunciation

• /njɛl/^[1]

Forms

nielle m (plural nielles)^[1]

Etymology

The word for niello work is a back-formation from French nieller (“to decorate with niello”), according to the TLFi, the DHLF, the GLLF and Larousse.^{[2][3][4][11]} Bloch and Wartburg prefer this to a borrowing from Italian.^[5] It filled the gap left by Old French neel (“black enamel”), recorded from the late 11th century to the 13th, from which the verb is derived;^[3][2][5] the Old French noun is the substantivised Latin nigellus (“blackish”).^[3][2][5]

The Grand Robert and the Petit Robert instead see the Old French word taken up again from Italian niello in 1823,^[9][10] and Wiktionary calls the word often considered a borrowing from Italian, perhaps a deverbal noun whose spelling followed Italian.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded in 1823 in Boiste's dictionary, for the black enamel inlay of the goldsmith,^[4][5] and in 1826 in the title of Duchesne's Essai sur les nielles.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old French neel and the verb neeler already named black enamel and its inlay; the Chanson de Roland has or neielez “niello-worked gold”.^[2][3] The modern noun names the technique, the inlay itself and the black enamel used for it, as well as, since 1842, a proof printed from the engraved plate before it was filled.^[10][2] The Académie has recorded it as masculine since 1835.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 11th century – Neeler in Rashi's glosses.^[2][3]
• c. 1100 – Or neielez in the Chanson de Roland.^[2]
• 1676 – Félibien has the verb nieller.^[2][3]
• 1823 – Boiste records the noun.^[4][5]
• 1826 – Duchesne's Essai sur les nielles.^[2][3]
• 1835 – The Académie records it.^[2]
• 1842 – Used for a proof taken from the engraved plate.^[10]
• 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense “ornament of black designs on a light ground”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (goldsmithing) niello: an inlay of black enamel in lines engraved on silver or another metal, and the black enamel used for it: un coffret d'argent orné de nielles.^[10][2][11]
2. A proof printed on paper, or cast in sulphur, from an engraved plate to check the work.^[10][2]
3. An ornament of black designs on a light ground, or the reverse.^[2][4]