ourdir

Forms

ourdir^[1] Old French ordir; the spelling ourdir appears in the 13th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ordir, inherited from Late Latin ōrdīre, an active form (found in Isidore) of the deponent Latin ōrdior (“to lay the warp, to begin”).^{[4][2][5][1][6]} The Latin verb was a weaving term for preparing the warp threads before setting them on the loom, and by extension meant to begin, especially to begin to speak, a sense Rey thinks was helped along by confusion with orior (“to rise”).^[2] He relates the verb to ōrdō (source of ordre) and ōrnō (orner), though the details of the forms are unexplained.^[2]

Cognate with Romanian urzi, Italian ordire, Occitan ordir, Catalan ordir, Spanish urdir and Portuguese urdir.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1150 in the Oxford Psalter, figuratively: the psalmist's life is cut off dementres uncore que je ordisseie “while I was still weaving”, translating Latin dum adhuc ordirer.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Like Latin ōrdior and, later, French tramer, the verb moved from the warping of threads to “to weave” (1180–1190, Alexandre de Paris) and to “to set up, undertake” (1180, Partonopeus de Blois).^[4][2] The guild rules of the 13th-century Livre des métiers forbid mistresses of the trade to warp thread with silk, because the work would be false.^[5] The figurative sense is used above all of a plot: Amyot in the 16th century writes of Tarquin ourdissant une trahison.^[2][5] The craft sense spread to ropemaking (1752, Trévoux) and to plaiting straw or wicker (1680, Richelet).^[3] In modern French the figurative use is very literary.^[2]

Its derivatives all belong to the technical sense: ourdisseur and ourdissoir (both 1410), and ourdissage (1753 by Rey, 1765 by Bloch and Wartburg).^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – The Oxford Psalter uses ordir figuratively.^[4]
• 1180 – Partonopeus de Blois uses it for “to undertake”.^[4]
• 1180–1190 – Alexandre de Paris uses it for “to weave”.^[4]
• 13th century – The spelling ourdir appears.^[3]
• 1410 – ourdisseur and ourdissoir are recorded.^[4][8]
• 1680 – Richelet applies it to plaiting wicker and straw.^[3]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux records the ropemaking sense.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (weaving) To warp: to set out and stretch the threads of the warp before weaving.^[9][4][1]
2. (poetic) To weave, as a spider its web.^[9]
3. (ropemaking) To lay out the yarns that will make up a rope.^[5][3]
4. (figurative, literary) To plot, to hatch (a plot or intrigue): ourdir une conspiration contre le roi.^[9][1][2]

Word family

• ourdissage
• ourdissoir
• ourdisseur

Related words

• ordre
• orner
• Latin ōrdior

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 401b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert