pinceau

Forms

pinceau m (plural pinceaux)^[1] Old French peincel (about 1165) and pincel (about 1260); the form pinceau dates from the 15th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pincel, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pēnicellus,^[5][2][6][7] which replaced the suffix of Latin pēnicillus (“paintbrush”), itself formed on pēniculus (“brush”), a diminutive of pēnis (“tail”).^[5][2][3] The Latin word meant the painter's brush, the art of painting and the manner of a writer.^[5][2] The unexpected /i/ of the Old French and modern forms is probably due to an early assimilation of the /e/ of the first syllable to the /i/ of the next.^[6][2]

Cognate with Old Occitan pinsel, Catalan pincell, Spanish pincel, Portuguese pincel and Italian pennello.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1165 as peincel in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie, for the brush of a painter.^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the painter's brush it named, by 1680, the brush of the gilder or engraver and the glue brush.^[5][2] As in Latin it came to stand for the art of painting: Ronsard pairs le pinceau et la plume in 1552;^[5] Régnier used it in 1609 of a writer's art of describing, Molière wrote coup de pinceau in 1665, and in 1690 Furetière called Poussin un sçavant pinceau, the painter himself.^[5][2]

Other senses come from the look of the brush: Rondelet named a marine worm pinceau de mer (1558, first in Latin in 1555), optics took up pinceau optique for a narrow beam of light (Ozanam, 1691), and Buffon used it for a tuft of hair (1761).^[5][2] Slang gave coup de pinceau “kick” (1800) and pinceau “leg” (1962), whence s'emmêler les pinceaux “to get muddled”;^[5][2] the TLFi and Rey derive this slang use more probably from pince in the sense of the front of a horse's hoof and the plural pincettes “legs” than from the brush.^[5][2] In the mid-20th century it was also slang for the penis.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Peincel appears in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[5][2]
• c. 1260 – The form pincel is recorded.^[2]
• 15th century – Pinceau replaces pincel.^[2][3]
• 1552 – Ronsard uses it for the painter's art.^[5]
• 1558 – Rondelet names the pinceau de mer.^[5][2]
• 1609 – Régnier applies it to a writer's descriptive art.^[5][2]
• 1665 – Coup de pinceau is found in Molière.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière uses it for the painter himself.^[5][2]
• 1691 – Ozanam records pinceau optique.^[5][2]
• 1761 – Buffon uses it for a tuft of hair.^[5][2]
• 1800 – Slang coup de pinceau “kick” is recorded.^[5][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A brush of hairs or fibres fixed to a handle, used to apply paint, varnish or glue.^[10][11][12]
2. Le pinceau: painting, and an artist's touch or manner;^[10][5] coup de pinceau, a brushstroke.^[10][5]
3. A tuft of hairs.^[10][5]
4. (physics) Pinceau lumineux: a narrow beam of light passing through a small opening.^[11][2]
5. (slang) A foot or a leg;^[2][5] s'emmêler les pinceaux, to get muddled or trip over oneself.^[2][5]

Word family

• pinceauter
• pincelier

Related words

• pénicilline
• pénis
• Latin pēnicillus

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 r s t u v w x Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x 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 Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 188a
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)