panneau

Forms

panneau m (plural panneaux)^[1] Old French panel (1160–1174), also peniau (1213), penel and pannel; the modern form took over during the 16th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French panel, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pannellus, a diminutive of pannus (“piece of cloth”), the source of pan.^[2][3][5][6] It is a doublet of panel.^[1]

Cognate with Italian pannello, Old Occitan panel and Portuguese painel; Spanish panel was taken from French.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as panel in Wace's Roman de Rou (1160–1174), meaning a saddle pad and a piece of cloth worn as a gaiter.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named things made of cloth: a saddle pad, a gaiter, a piece of material in sewing (1213).^[2][3] From 1213 it began to name part of a surface, then a rigid panel in architecture, joinery and decoration, and today has many technical uses, from car body panels to prefabricated panels.^[3][2]

In hunting it named a net stretched to catch game (1285), the source of the figurative tendre un panneau (late 14th century) and donner dans le panneau “to be taken in” (1642, Corneille).^[2][3][5] A panel bearing notices or road signs is the usual modern sense, as in panneau de signalisation.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 1160–1174 – Panel “saddle pad” in Wace's Roman de Rou.^[2]
• 1213 – Peniau for a piece of cloth and part of a surface in the Fet des Romains.^[2]
• 1285 – Sense “net for catching game”.^[2]
• late 14th century – Eustache Deschamps uses the net figuratively.^[2]
• 16th century – The modern form panneau takes over.^[3]
• 1642 – Donner dans le panneau appears in Corneille's Le Menteur.^[2]
• 1798 – The derivative panneauter is recorded in hunting.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (hunting) A net for catching game;^[8][2] tomber or donner dans le panneau, to fall into the trap.^[8][2]
2. A panel, a flat section of a structure framed by a border or by other panels: panneau de boiserie;^[8][1] panneau solaire, solar panel.^[8][1]
3. A flat board for notices or signs: panneau publicitaire, panneau de signalisation.^[8][1]
4. (art) A wooden panel on which a picture is painted.^[8][9]
5. (sewing) A piece of fabric set into a garment: les panneaux d'une jupe.^[8][2]

Word family

• panneauter
• panneautage

Related words

• pan
• panel
• Latin pannus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 7, 559b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette