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paquebot

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Etymology and origin of the French word paquebot

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1647 Cleirac, Explication des termes de marine More words from the 17th century
Borrowed from
English packet-boat

Pronunciation

Forms

paquebot m (plural paquebots)[1] Earlier French forms are paquebouc (1647), paquet-bot (1687, recorded by the Académie in 1718) and paquebout (1701, Furetière).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English packet-boat, a compound of packet in the special sense “packet of mail” and boat.[2][3][5] The English word is recorded only from 1641, for a boat that carried the state's mail;[2][3] its first element is itself borrowed from French paquet.[3][4] Because these boats regularly took passengers too, notably between Calais and Dover, the name stayed with passenger ships.[2][3]

The French form was adapted in stages: paquebouc, then the present form from 1665, which won out over paquet-bot and paquebout.[3][2] In the 19th century the English compound and its English short form were also used in French, and Larousse dictionaries from 1903 to 1923 even recorded a francized short form.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is paquebouc in Cleirac's glossary of sea terms (1647), defined as the passage boats that regularly crossed from Calais to Dover carrying travellers and messengers;[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the Petit Robert date paquebouc to 1634.[4][6] Paquebot itself is found in 1665, in Monconys's journal.[2][7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word named a medium-sized boat carrying mail and passengers, a sense now obsolete.[2][6] In 1783 it was used for a ship making regular transatlantic crossings with mail, passengers and their luggage, a sense that has not survived either.[2][3]

From 1831 it has meant a large ocean-going passenger ship, the kind English calls a liner or steamer;[2][3] Michelet wrote of paquebots américains, étonnants de luxe (“American packet-boats, astonishing in their luxury”).[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1647 – Cleirac records paquebouc for the Calais–Dover passage boats.[2]
  • 1665 – The form paquebot appears in Monconys.[2]
  • 1687 – The spelling paquet-bot is found.[4][3]
  • 1718 – The Académie records paquet-bot.[3]
  • 1783 – It names a ship carrying mail and passengers across the Atlantic.[2]
  • 1831 – Michelet uses it for large transoceanic passenger ships.[2][3]
  • 1845 – Bescherelle records the sense “passenger ship”.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dated) A medium-sized ship carrying mail and passengers; a packet boat.[2][6]
  2. A large merchant ship chiefly carrying passengers, an ocean liner: paquebot transatlantique, paquebot de croisière.[6][2]

Usage notes

Littré notes that the final ⟨t⟩ is silent and is not sounded in liaison, while the plural ⟨s⟩ is.[5]

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 m n o p q 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  6. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Paquebot.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/paquebot. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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