piler

piler¹ to crush, pound

Etymology tree of piler¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin pīla

Spanish pila

English pile

Latin pīlō

French piler

From the same root · piler¹

English stockpile ← pile

Latin compīlō ← pīlō

Latin expīlō ← pīlō

Pronunciation

• /pi.le/^[1]

Forms

piler^[1]

Etymology

The word for “to crush, pound” is inherited from Late Latin pīlō (“to ram down, plant, pile up”), recorded from the end of the 4th century,^[2][3][4][5] a derivative of pīla (“pillar”).^[2][3] The GLLF instead gives the Latin noun the sense “mortar, fuller's trough”,^[6] and Littré derived the verb from pīlum (“pestle”).^[7]

Cognate with Italian pillare and Occitan pilar.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1170 in the Livre des Rois, in the participle orge piled “crushed barley”: a woman spread a cloth over a well si cume ele i sechast orge piled pur faire gruel (“as if she were drying crushed barley on it to make gruel”).^[2][7] The Robert dictionaries and the DHLF date the verb to about 1165.^[9][10][3]

Semantic evolution

From “to reduce to small pieces by repeated blows” the verb came to mean, by analogy, “to trample”.^[3] In Normandy it took the special intransitive sense of crushing apples for cider (1312).^[3] In the whole of western France it was used for treading on something, and this use passed to Canadian French (se faire piler sur les pieds), where patates pilées is mashed potato.^[3]

The figurative piler du poivre (1765) was first said of soldiers marking time without moving forward, then in riding of a poor horseman bouncing in the saddle (late 18th century).^[3][6] The Middle French sense “to make suffer, oppress” is continued, probably through a new metaphor, in the familiar “to thrash” (1821).^[3][6] In old slang the verb meant “to eat a lot” (1656),^[2] and in Swiss French la piler (1915) means “to toil, suffer”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1170 – Orge piled appears in the Livre des Rois.^[2][6]
• 1312 – In Normandy it means “to crush apples for cider”.^[3]
• 1656 – Oudin records the slang sense “to eat a lot”.^[2]
• 1765 – Piler du poivre is recorded in the Encyclopédie.^[6][3]
• 1794 – Pileur de poivre is used of a poor rider.^[3]
• 1821 – The familiar sense “to thrash” appears.^[3][6]
• 1915 – Swiss French la piler “to toil” is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To crush or pound into small pieces, powder or paste by repeated blows: piler des noix dans un mortier.^[10][11][2]
2. (regional) In western France and Canada, to trample, to tread on: piler sur les pieds of someone.^[10][3]
3. (familiar) To thrash, to beat soundly;^[10][11] se faire piler is to be crushed, as a team in a match.^[10][11]
4. (figurative, dated) Piler du poivre: of the rear ranks of marching troops, to mark time without advancing, also of a rider, to bounce in the saddle.^[7][6]

Word family

• pilon
• pilonner
• pilage
• pileur

piler² to brake hard

Pronunciation

• /pi.le/^[1]

Forms

piler^[1]

Etymology

The word for “to brake hard” is from French pile (“exactly, dead (adverb)”), from its use in s'arrêter pile (“to stop dead”) and freiner pile (“to brake sharply”).^[9][3][10] The adverb, recorded from 1866, probably alludes to a coin that falls on its reverse side and lies still without spinning.^[9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is recorded about 1950, as a familiar word for a vehicle braking sharply, that is, stopping dead.^[3][9]

Timeline

• 1866 – Pile is first used as an adverb of sudden stopping.^[3][9]
• 1906 – S'arrêter pile “to stop dead” is recorded.^[3][9]
• c. 1950 – Piler “to brake hard” appears.^[3][9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (familiar, intransitive) To brake hard, to stop dead, of a driver or a vehicle: le camion a pilé devant le passage piéton.^[10][11][1]