penne

Forms

penne f (plural pennes)^[1] Old French penne, also written pene and panne.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French penne, inherited from Latin pinna (“feather, wing”),^[5][6][7][1] which was confused with penna (“feather, wing, pen”) and was probably only a dialect variant of it.^[5][6] The Grand Robert, the Petit Robert, Littré and Bloch and Wartburg give the etymon as the latter;^[8][9][3][2] Bloch and Wartburg take the French form to be remade after Latin from a popular panne, though in medieval spelling the two cannot be told apart.^[2] Wiktionary traces the Latin words to Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), and Littré to the root of Greek words for flying.^[1][3]

Cognate with Italian penna and Old Occitan pena.^[3][10] panne is a doublet.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Vie de saint Alexis (about 1050) uses the word for a writing quill;^[5][11][8] the sense “long wing feather” follows in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134).^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

As a common word penne lost out to plume;^[2][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg note that it survives in only a few places in Wallonia.^[2][5][6] It lives on as a term of ornithology for the large feathers of the wings and tail, and of falconry for the moulting feathers of a bird of prey.^[6][5][3]

From the shape of a feather it was applied to several things: the feathering of an arrow (1573), and in seafaring (1515) the upper end of a lateen yard (1685).^[6][11][5] English pen, first recorded in the late 13th century, comes from the Old French word in its writing sense and directly from Latin.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – “Writing quill” in the Vie de saint Alexis.^[5][11]
• 1121–1134 – “Long wing feather” in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire.^[5]
• Late 13th century – English penne “pen”.^[12]
• 1515 – First use in seafaring.^[6]
• Before 1525 – The derivative pennage “plumage”.^[5]
• 1573 – Du Puys uses it for the feathering of an arrow.^[5][11]
• 1685 – Furetière records the upper end of a yard.^[11][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ornithology) One of the large feathers of a bird's wings (remiges) or tail (rectrices).^[9][5][11]
2. (falconry) A large feather of a bird of prey, renewed at each moult.^[5][3]
3. (archaeology) The fletching of an arrow.^[9][11]
4. (nautical) The upper end of a lateen yard.^[9][11]
5. (heraldry, plural) The feathers on a hat set above a shield.^[3]

Word family

• pennage
• pennon
• panonceau
• panneton

Related words

• panne
• Latin penna
• English pen

Usage notes

Penne (plural pennes) is also the name, taken from Italian in 1987, of the short ridged tubes of pasta cut on the slant: in Italian penne is the plural of penna “feather”.^[9][1]

Littré has two other words penne: in weaving, the head of the warp and the threads left on the beam when the cloth is taken off, and in carpentry and seafaring, a kind of joist and one of the two pieces of a lateen yard; he derives both from Breton penn (“end, head”).^[3] Old French also had a penne or panne meaning “fur used as lining”,^[4] which Littré takes from Latin pannus (“cloth”).^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 526b
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com