palette

Forms

palette f (plural palettes)^[1] The GLLF records the spelling paelete in Villard de Honnecourt in the 13th century, palete about 1354 and palette about 1398, in the Ménagier de Paris.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from French pale (“blade of an oar”) + -ette, with the diminutive suffix.^[3][4][5][6] The base is probably a dialect variant, from Occitan pala (“shovel”) or from a western dialect, of pele, the old form of pelle, which is from Latin pāla (“spade, shovel”).^[3][7] Bloch and Wartburg and Picoche likewise place this word among the derivatives of the Latin word, beside palet and paleron.^[7][8]

Meyer-Lübke saw it instead as a loan from Italian paletta, the Italian diminutive of pala, which also gave Spanish paleta and Portuguese paleta.^[9] Littré compared the Occitan and Spanish forms and a Norman word for a fire shovel.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from 1375, in a document cited by Godefroy, where it means the kneecap; in 1376 it appears as a technical term in the hunting treatise Modus et Ratio, and in 1380 it names a flat object of metal, precious stone or wood on which things could be set.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

From the flat object, the word spread to many flat, elongated tools: the small wooden bat used to play shuttlecock (1533), the paddle of a mill wheel (1685), the marker's disc that shows where a shot hit a target (1903) and since 1958 the loading platform of goods handling, the pallet.^[3][4] In anatomy it meant the kneecap and then the shoulder blade (1611); that sense has aged except in butchery, where palette is a cut of the shoulder.^[4][3]

By likeness of shape to a shoulder blade, it became the thin board on which a painter lays out and mixes colours (1621), and by metonymy the range of colours typical of a painter (1733, Voltaire, la palette de Rubens).^[4][3] Figuratively it now names any range of nuances or means, such as the style of a writer or a range of flavours.^[11][12] In 19th-century slang it meant the hand (1828–1829) and, popularly, a large front tooth (1834, Balzac).^[4][3] Quebec French uses it for the peak of a cap, a fly swatter, a bar of chocolate and the paddle for stirring maple syrup.^[4][13]

English borrowed the painter's sense from French in the 1620s.^[14]

Timeline

• 1375 – First recorded, meaning “kneecap”.^[3][4]
• 1376 – A technical term in Modus et Ratio.^[3]
• 1380 – A flat object on which things are laid.^[3][4]
• 1533 – The small wooden bat for shuttlecock.^[3]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records the sense “shoulder blade”.^[3][4]
• 1620s – English borrows palette for the painter's board.^[14]
• 1621 – Étienne Binet uses it for the painter's palette.^[3][4]
• 1685 – The paddle of a mill wheel.^[3][4]
• 1733 – Voltaire uses it for a painter's range of colours.^[3][4]
• 1769 – The derived verb paletter appears in a treatise on fishing.^[3]
• 1828–1829 – Vidocq records it as slang for the hand.^[3][4]
• 1834 – Balzac uses it for a large tooth.^[3][4]
• 1903 – Palette de marqueur appears.^[3][4]
• 1958 – The loading pallet of goods handling.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat, elongated wooden tool, such as a small bat or a beater for laundry.^[13][11]
2. The flat blade of an oar, or a paddle of a mill wheel, propeller or fan.^[6][3]
3. A pallet, a loading platform moved by forklift trucks: charger des palettes de briques.^[13][4]
4. (butchery) A cut of pork or mutton made of the shoulder blade and the meat around it.^[13][3]
5. A painter's palette, a thin board with a hole for the thumb, on which colours are mixed.^[13][11][12]
6. The range of colours typical of a painter;^[11][12] (figurative) any range of nuances or means: une palette d'arômes.^[11][12]
7. (Quebec, familiar) A bar of chocolate; also the peak of a cap.^[13][4]
8. (slang, dated) The hand; a large front tooth.^[3][4]

Word family

• paletter
• palettiser

Related words

• pale
• pelle
• palet
• paleron
• Latin pāla
• English palette

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a second palette, the bowl in which blood was collected during a saignée (15th century), an alteration after palette of Old French paelette (13th century) “small basin”, a diminutive of paele, the old form of poêle; the two diminutives merged early.^[5][7][8] It also meant the amount of blood the bowl held.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
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 Picoche, Jacqueline (1991), Dictionnaire étymologique du français, Paris: Le Robert (Les Usuels du Robert)
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d e Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
12. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com