nuque

Forms

nuque f (plural nuques)^[1] Middle French nuche (1314), then nuque (1377).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin nucha (“spinal cord”), a word of the 11th century,^[2][3] which is from Arabic نُخَاع (nuḵāʕ, “spinal marrow”).^[1][2][4] Rey and Bloch and Wartburg say that the Latin word was taken from Arabic by the physician Constantine the African, born in Carthage in the 11th century, who taught at the medical school of Salerno.^[3][4]

The modern sense “back of the neck” is put down to the influence of another Arabic noun of similar form, meaning the nape, which medieval Latin medical texts wrote nocra and nucra, and to the replacement of the medieval Latin word by medulla for the spinal cord in the scientific Latin of the 16th century.^[2][3][4][5] Littré reports earlier Germanic explanations, which compared Swedish nacke and English neck, and Diez's proposal of a Dutch source, and rejects them for the Arabic etymology first put forward by Bochart.^[6] Pihan instead derived it from an Arabic word for the hollow at the back of the skull.^[7]

Cognate with Italian nuca, Spanish nuca, Portuguese nuca and Old Occitan nuca.^[8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie (1314) has nuche for the spinal cord: Tous les ners si com il nessent de la nuche (“all the nerves as they arise from the spinal cord”).^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Until the 16th century the word named only the spinal cord, as in Lanfranc's surgery, where the marrow passes through the pierced vertebra;^[3][6][4] Paré still wrote la nucque ou medulle spinale.^[3][6][4] The sense “back of the neck” appears in 1546 in Charles Estienne's anatomy, and Amyot uses it in his Plutarch.^[2][6][9] In turn nuque helped to shift the meaning of chignon, the older French name for the nape.^[3]

In ordinary use the word applies to people; zoology extended it to animals.^[3] It forms the compounds couvre-nuque (1833), a flap protecting the neck at the back of a cap, and appui-nuque (20th century), a headrest.^[3]

Timeline

• 11th century – Medieval Latin nucha “spinal cord” appears in Constantine the African.^[2][3]
• 1314 – Nuche “spinal cord” in Henri de Mondeville's Chirurgie.^[2][3]
• 1377 – The form nuque in a translation of Lanfranc's surgery.^[2][3]
• 1546 – First recorded in the modern sense “back of the neck”, in Charles Estienne.^[2][3]
• 1833 – Couvre-nuque is recorded.^[3]
• 1837 – The derived adjective nucal is recorded.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The nape, the back of the neck just below the occiput.^[10][2]
2. (zoology) The corresponding part in animals.^[3][2]

Word family

• nucal
• couvre-nuque
• appui-nuque

Related words

• chignon
• Medieval Latin nucha

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Pihan, A. P. (1866), Glossaire des mots français tirés de l'arabe, du persan et du turc, Paris: Challamel
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert