pédale

Forms

pédale f (plural pédales)^[1] Middle French pedalle.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian pedale, which named an organ pedal from 1561 and various devices worked by the foot,^[2][3] from Latin pedālis (“of the foot, a foot long”), derived from pēs (“foot”).^[3][2][4] The Latin neuter pedāle was also used as a noun for a shoe, as in Petronius.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert start the Italian word from a popular Latin noun *pedale “device worked with the foot”.^[5][6][7]

The TLF-Étym notes that the Italian word is much older than its musical sense, meaning the lower part of a tree trunk from the 13th century, and that French took it over with a change of gender, as one of the many musical terms Italy gave French in the Renaissance.^[8] Wiktionary explains the feminine by a reading of the Italian ending ⟨-ale⟩ as the French feminine of ⟨-al⟩, and calls the word a doublet of pédal.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1560, as pedalle, in a contract for repairing the organs of a Sainte-Chapelle, for the long keys of the organ's bass keyboard played with the foot.^[8][2] Rey gives an earlier date, 1530, for the form pedalle.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Rabelais used pedale figuratively in 1552 for a movement of the feet,^[2] and in the 18th century pédales were an abbé's shoes, after the Latin noun.^[2][3] In music the word spread from the organ to the harp (1798) and the piano (1823), with pédale douce and pédale forte recorded by Littré in 1868;^[9] by metonymy it came to mean a long sustained note in the bass (1835, Cherubini), short for note de pédale.^[2][3]

From the end of the 18th century it was used for any part worked by the foot to drive a machine (1797), then for the part of a bicycle on which the feet push (1869).^[2][3] Cycling gave perdre la pédale (1884), used figuratively in the plural, perdre les pédales “to lose one's head”, from 1940–1943;^[2][3] quitter les pédales is found in 1911.^[2][3] The word was applied to cars as well, as in pédale de frein (1903).^[2][3] In cycling slang en avoir sous la pédale meant to have strength in reserve in a race.^[3]

English borrowed it in the 1610s as pedal, first for an organ lever worked by the foot.^[10]

Timeline

• 1552 – Rabelais uses pedale for a movement of the feet.^[2]
• 1560 – Pedalle is recorded for an organ pedal.^[8][2]
• 1797 – Used for a part worked by the foot to drive a machine.^[2][3]
• 1835 – Cherubini uses it for a sustained note.^[2][3]
• 1869 – First used for a bicycle pedal.^[2][3]
• 1884 – Perdre la pédale is recorded in cycling.^[2][3]
• 1903 – Pédale de frein appears.^[2][3]
• 1929 – First record of the slang sense “homosexual man”.^[3]
• 1940–1943 – Perdre les pédales is used figuratively.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A key or lever worked with the foot on a musical instrument such as the organ, the harp or the piano: pédale douce, pédale forte.^[6][11]
2. (music) A long sustained note in the bass, also note de pédale.^[6][2]
3. A lever worked by the foot to drive or control a machine, such as a sewing machine, or the accelerator, clutch or brake of a car.^[6][11]
4. Each of the two parts of a bicycle on which the feet push to turn the cranks.^[6][11]
5. (familiar) Perdre les pédales: to lose one's head, to get muddled.^[6][11]
6. (familiar) Mettre la pédale douce: to go gently, to ease off.^[6][11]
7. (by metonymy) Cycling as a sport.^[6]
8. (railways) A device set off by a passing axle, for example to close a signal.^[11]

Word family

• pédalage
• pédaleur
• pédaleuse
• rétropédaler
• pédaler
• pédalier

Related words

• pied
• pédal
• Latin pedālis
• English pedal

Usage notes

Pédale is also an offensive slang word for a homosexual man, recorded from 1929 (the Petit Robert dates it 1935); Rey explains it as a play on the first syllable of pédéraste, perhaps helped by a cyclist's posture on the saddle.^[3][6][12] This sense limited the use of pédale for cycling and for a good cyclist, which went out of use about 1950.^[8][6]

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 u 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 q r s t Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 118a
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Steinfeld, Nadine; Buchi, Éva, eds. (2005–), TLF-Étym: révision des notices étymologiques du Trésor de la langue française informatisé, Nancy: ATILF
9. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 473b