planteur

Forms

planteur m (plural planteurs, feminine planteuse)^[1] Old French plantator, plantaour and plantierres, Middle French plantheur; the feminine was first planteresse.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French planter + -eur.^[2][4][1] The verb planter comes from Latin plantō.^[1] The TLFi compares the metaphorical use of plantator in Christian Latin, which matches the earliest French uses.^[2][3]

The sense “owner of a plantation in the colonies” (1667) is a semantic borrowing from English planter, itself formed from the verb plant, which English took from French; it is recorded in that sense in English from 1619.^[2][5] The Petit Robert instead calls the 1667 record a single use after Dutch planter and dates the English loan to 1723.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the first quarter of the 13th century, in a late 13th-century manuscript of Renclus de Moiliens' Charité, as plantator (also plantaour), “one who plants”, used metaphorically; at the end of that century Jean de Meun's translation of Abelard's letters uses plantierres for “one who founds an institution”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The early figurative uses died out; of the native senses only the literal “one who plants” is alive, recorded for a woman (planteresse) in 1365 and for a man (plantheur) in 1427.^[3][2] The modern form took a long time to prevail.^[3]

From the 17th century the colonial sense, after English planter, named the owner and farmer of a plantation in a tropical country, such as the planters of the West Indies.^[2][6][7] Planteur de choux was said of a man living in retirement in the country;^[7][2] Rabelais already wrote of being spun as a planteur de choulx.^[7] From the colonial sense the word also came to name a rum cocktail with fruit juice and cane syrup.^[6] The feminine planteuse names a machine that plants tubers (1903).^[5]

Timeline

• 1200–1225 – Plantator appears in Renclus de Moiliens' Charité.^[2]
• c. 1280 – Jean de Meun uses plantierres “founder”.^[2][4]
• 1365 – The feminine planteresse “woman who plants” is recorded at Tournai.^[2]
• 1427 – Plantheur “one who plants” is recorded at Tournai.^[2][4]
• 1619 – English planter is used of the owner of a plantation.^[2]
• 1667 – Du Tertre's history of the Antilles uses planteur for a colonial planter.^[2][5]
• 1723 – The colonial sense becomes established, according to the Petit Robert.^[6]
• 1903 – Larousse records planteuse, a planting machine.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) A person who plants trees or other plants.^[6][2][7]
2. The owner and farmer of a plantation in a tropical country.^[6][2][5]
3. (masculine) A cocktail of white rum, fruit juice and cane syrup.^[6]

Related words

• planter
• plantation

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette