oie

Forms

oie f (plural oies)^[1] Old French oe, oue;^[2][3][4] oue was still in use in the 16th and 17th centuries.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French oie, earlier oe, oue, inherited from Late Latin auca (“goose”) (4th–5th century), a contraction of Vulgar Latin *avica, a derivative of Latin avis (“bird”).^[2][5][6][3] The form with ⟨i⟩ appears at the end of the 12th century; the TLFi and Rey take it as a reshaping after oiseau, Bloch and Wartburg after both that word and oison, and the GLLF also allows a dialect form from east of Paris.^[2][6][3][7] The Vulgar Latin word replaced the classical ānser, which was lost everywhere, because the goose was the domestic bird par excellence.^[3]

Cognate with Italian oca, Spanish oca, Catalan oca, Occitan auca and Franco-Provençal ôye.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as oe in Wace (about 1155), meaning the goose; the form oie appears in the Roman de Thèbes and in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Chronique des ducs de Normandie (about 1175).^[7][2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the domestic bird raised for its meat, and gave phrases such as gardeuse d'oies and plume d'oie.^[6] The goose had a large place in symbolism, as a messenger that gives warning, and in folklore with ma mère l'oie.^[6] Rey dates the jeu de l'oie, an old board game, to 1612–1613.^[6] The GLLF and the TLFi first find it in Molière (1668–1669).^[7][2]

Petite oie first meant the giblets of a goose (first half of the 16th century), then in the 17th century small accessories (1620), the ribbons and trimmings of a garment (1637) and the small favours a woman grants her lover (1665).^[2][6] Because of the bird's reputation for stupidity, oie meant a silly person (1835), and oie blanche (1909) a prim and naive girl; this is why the phrase is not used for the wild white goose, except in Quebec.^[2][6] The pas de l'oie, the stiff-legged parade step, is recorded from 1907.^[2][6]

Timeline

• c. 1155 – Wace writes oe.^[7]
• c. 1175 – The form oie appears in the Chronique des ducs de Normandie.^[2][6]
• First half of the 16th century – Petite oie means goose giblets.^[2]
• 1612 – L'oie names the board game;^[6] jeu de l'oie follows in 1613.^[6]
• 1665 – La Fontaine uses petite oie for a woman's small favours.^[2]
• 1669 – Jeu de l'oie appears in Molière's L'Avare.^[2]
• 1835 – The Académie records it for a silly person.^[2]
• 1907 – Pas de l'oie is recorded.^[2]
• 1909 – Oie blanche appears in Martin du Gard.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A goose, a large web-footed bird with a long neck, one species of which is domesticated; especially the female of this species.^[8][9]
2. The meat of the goose: confit d'oie, foie gras d'oie.^[8][6]
3. (figurative) A silly, naive person;^[8][2] oie blanche: a naive, innocent girl.^[8][2]
4. Jeu de l'oie: a board game played with dice on a spiral of squares.^[2][6]
5. Pas de l'oie: the goose step.^[2][6]

Word family

• patte-d'oie

Related words

• oiseau
• oison
• Latin avis

Usage notes

The old form oue survived in the Paris street name rue aux Oues, altered in the 17th century to rue aux Ours.^[3]

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 n o p q r s t 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 25, 756a
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)