pétrir

Forms

pétrir^[1] Old French pestrir.^[2][3] The variant paitrir was used until 1732, and the Académie wrote pétrir in 1740.^[4][5] Littré notes that in Ménage's time the word was pronounced pêtrir and often written paistrir.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pestrir, inherited from Late Latin pistriō (“to knead”), formed on pistrīx (“woman who kneads, baker”) after the model of nūtrīx (“nurse”) beside nūtriō (“to nourish”).^[2][7][5] The Latin noun is the feminine of pistor (“baker”), from the supine of pinsō (“to pound grain”).^[5][4][3] Rey assigns the Latin verb to an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *peis- used of pounding with a pestle, as opposed to molō, the source of moudre, used of grinding with a stone.^[3]

The word is only Gallo-Romance: compare Old Occitan pestrir and Walloon prusti.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain (1176–1181) as pestrir “to press and work a soft mass hard in every direction with the hands”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

By analogy it was used for shaping a malleable substance by hand (pestrir le mortier, about 1240).^[2][3] From there came the figurative “to shape, mould someone” (about 1225, Reclus de Molliens), especially pétrir quelqu'un de… (1584, Ronsard: hommes poistris de limonneuse terre).^[2][3] The 17th-century phrases pétri d'eau froide “dull and effeminate” and pétri de folle farine “scatterbrained” (both in Cotgrave, 1611) and pétri de bile (1648) have gone out of use.^[2][3]

Of the derivatives, pestriseur (about 1260) is the oldest, the modern pétrisseur dating from 1538; pétrissable is recorded from 1749, and pétrissage (1764) has also meant a kind of therapeutic massage since 1923.^[3]

Timeline

• 1176–1181 – Pestrir in Chrétien de Troyes's Yvain.^[2]
• c. 1225 – Reclus de Molliens uses it for shaping a person.^[2][3]
• c. 1240 – Pestrir le mortier in the Mort Aymeri de Narbonne.^[2]
• c. 1260 – The derivative pestriseur appears.^[3]
• 1584 – Ronsard writes of men poistris de limonneuse terre.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records pestri d'eau froide and pestri de folle farine.^[2]
• 1740 – The Académie spells it pétrir.^[5]
• 1764 – Pétrissage is first recorded.^[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To knead flour and water into dough.^[8][2][6]
2. To work and shape a malleable substance such as clay or wax.^[8][5]
3. To squeeze or handle something hard in every direction.^[8][6]
4. (figurative) To shape or form a person or a character;^[8][3][6] pétri de: made up of, full of.^[8][3][6]

Word family

• pétrissable
• pétrissage
• pétrisseur
• repétrir

Related words

• pétrin
• pister
• Latin pinsō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert