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Etymology and origin of the French word pêcher

pêcher1 to fish

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1138 Gaimar
Inherited from
Latin *pisco via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin piscis

Pronunciation

Forms

pêcher[1] Old French peschier and pescher; the spelling pêcher dates from the 17th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to fish” is inherited from Old French peschier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *piscō, from Latin piscor (“to fish”).[2][5][4][1] The Latin verb is derived from piscis (“fish”), the source of poisson.[2][6] Latin used it figuratively for wasting one's time, “fishing in the air”.[2]

Cognate with Occitan pescar, Spanish pescar and Italian pescare.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1138 in Gaimar, written pescher;[3][4] the first uses are intransitive, “to go fishing”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Used at first without an object, the verb gave the figurative phrase pêcher en eau trouble “to fish in troubled waters”, profiting from confusion, of which a variant is found in 1175.[2] From 1230 it was also transitive, “to catch (fish)”, with a fisherman or, from the late 13th century, a bird of prey as subject.[2] The Gospel image of fishing for men appears in the late 12th century,[2] in the sermons of Saint Bernard: por pesxier les hommes.[6]

From 1165 the verb also meant, familiarly, to catch or take, and then to find, as in 1579 où avez-vous pesché tout ce que vous dites ? “where did you fish up all you are saying?”.[2] It was used for pulling someone, such as a drowned man, out of the water (1429) and for bringing up coral or pearls (1552).[2] Pêcher à la ligne “to fish with a rod” took on the sense “to abstain from voting” in Octave Mirbeau in 1889.[2]

Timeline

  • c. 1138 – Pescher appears in Gaimar.[3][4]
  • c. 1165 – First used in the familiar sense “to catch, take”.[2]
  • 1175 – An early form of pêcher en eau trouble is recorded.[2]
  • 1230 – First transitive use, “to catch (fish)”.[2]
  • 1261 – The noun pêche2 “fishing” is recorded.[5][2]
  • 1429 – Used for pulling a person out of the water.[2]
  • 1579 – The sense “to find, dig up” is recorded.[2]
  • 1606 – Nicot records pêcher en eau trouble.[3]
  • 1889 – Octave Mirbeau uses pêcher à la ligne for abstaining from an election.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To fish, to catch or try to catch fish: pêcher le brochet, pêcher en rivière;[7][6] pêcher à la ligne, with a rod.[7][6]
  2. To catch other water animals: pêcher des crabes.[7]
  3. (figurative) pêcher en eau trouble: to profit dishonestly from a state of confusion.[7][2]
  4. (figurative, familiar) To find or dig up something unexpected: Où est-elle allée pêcher cette idée ?[7][2]

Word family

pêcher2 peach tree

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
c. 1150 Floire et Blancheflor
Ultimate origin
Latin persicum
Etymology tree of pêcher2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin Persicus
Latin persica
French pêche
French pêcher
Romanian piersică
From the same root · pêcher2
Latin persicum ← Persicus

Pronunciation

Forms

pêcher m (plural pêchers)[1] Old French peskier, later peschier and pescher; the spelling pêcher is recorded in 1677 by Miège.[3][8][4]

Etymology

The word for the peach tree is from French pêche1 + -ier, from the name of the fruit, “peach”; the suffix is regularly reduced to ⟨-er⟩ after a palatal consonant.[8][2][1] Medieval Latin already had persicarius in this sense, in the 8th-century Capitulare de villis.[8][2] The fruit's name comes from Vulgar Latin persica, the neuter plural of persicum (“Persian fruit”) taken as a feminine noun; the tree was called persica arbor (“tree of Persia”), after where it came from.[5]

Compare Occitan pesseguier, Catalan presseguer and Portuguese pessegueiro.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1150 in Floire et Blancheflor, in the plural peskiers: Peskiers ne periers ne noiers “neither peach trees nor pear trees nor walnut trees”.[8][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the tree, the phrase fleur de pêcher named a bright shade of pink from 1316, first of cloth in the royal accounts,[8][2] and later the coat of a horse with tufts of red hairs on a white ground.[2][6] A syrup of peach-tree flowers was once used as a purgative and vermifuge.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 1150 – Peskiers appears in Floire et Blancheflor.[8]
  • 1316 – Fleur de peschier names a shade of pink cloth.[8]
  • late 14th century – The form pescher is recorded.[8][2]
  • 1677 – Miège has the spelling pêcher.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A peach tree, a fruit tree of the rose family grown for its fruit, the pêche.[7][8]
  2. fleur de pêcher: a fairly bright pink; of a horse, a coat of red hairs in tufts on a white ground.[7][6]

Usage notes

Both words are homophones of pécher “to sin” and péché “sin”, which are written with an acute accent.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 v w x y 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pêcher.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/p%C3%AAcher. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

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