orge

Forms

orge m or f (plural orges)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin hordeum (“barley”).^[2][3][4][1] Rey calls the Latin word very old and reports that it has been compared with Old High German gersta and Albanian drith and with an Armenian word, and also linked, probably by folk etymology, to horreō (“to bristle”).^[5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥sdeyom (“bristly”).^[1]

Cognate with Italian orzo, Romanian orz, Occitan ordi and Catalan ordi.^[6][7] Walloon has the masculine woig.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134), naming the cereal plant.^[2][8] The Roncevaux has, in the 12th century, De cinq pains d'orge, de deux poissons noant (“Of five barley loaves, of two swimming fishes”).^[7]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy the word soon named the grain itself (about 1170).^[2][5] Its gender has wavered since the Middle Ages, as with many nouns beginning with a vowel and ending in -e;^[3][5] it is now feminine, except in the traditional phrases orge mondé “hulled barley” (1378) and orge perlé “pearl barley” (1765).^[5][2]

Sucre d'orge (1644) was so called because the sweet was made with sugar purified in a barley decoction; the name now covers a stick-shaped sweet with no barley in it.^[5] From the 16th to the 18th century grain d'orge took several analogical senses: a cloth sown with dots like barley grains (1538), a cheap twilled woollen cloth (1723), and, in medicine, a sty (1660).^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1121–1134 – Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire uses the word for the plant.^[2]
• c. 1170 – It names the grain.^[2][5]
• 1378 – Orge mondé is recorded.^[2]
• 1538 – À grain d'orge describes a dotted cloth.^[2]
• 1644 – Poussin writes of sucre d'orge.^[2][5]
• 1660 – Grain d'orge means a sty.^[2]
• 1765 – Orge perlé appears in the Encyclopédie.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. barley, a cereal grass with bearded ears.^[9][2]
2. The grain of this plant, used in brewing and as animal feed.^[9][8]
3. Sucre d'orge: a stick of barley sugar.^[9][8]
4. Orge perlé (masculine): pearl barley.^[9]

Word family

• orgeat

Related words

• Latin hordeum

Usage notes

The word is feminine, but masculine in orge mondé and orge perlé.^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 481b
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert