poche

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɔʃ/^[1]

Forms

poche f (plural poches)^[1] Old French puche (about 1180), then pouche and poche (14th century); Norman pouque.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Frankish *pokka (“purse, bag”), a form reconstructed from Middle Dutch poke (“bag”) and Old Norse poki (“purse, small bag”).^[5][2][6][7] Wiktionary gives the Frankish word as “*pokkō”, from Proto-Germanic *puhô (“bag, pouch”), and compares Old English pohha and English pocket.^[1] Scots English poke (“bag”) may be related too, or borrowed from French.^[2] Pierre Guiraud proposed that the Frankish word passed through Romance forms in “*popp-”, an expressive stem suggesting swelling.^[2][6]

The word is found only in French; the north-east has words from Germanic “*taska” (compare German Tasche), and Lyon, Savoy and French-speaking Switzerland “fata”, from Burgundian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marie de France's Fables (about 1180) has puche, a purse or small bag, the first sense, now gone from standard French.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle French it was a large canvas sack for grain (1352), a rabbit-catching net (1376) and, in surgery, a sac-shaped cavity of the body (1377).^[5][2] The bird's crop followed in 1530, and in 1573 the pocket of a garment, which became the main sense.^[5][2]

The pocket gave many phrases: tenir une affaire dans sa poche (1690), later c'est dans la poche (1935); les mains dans les poches (1690); payer de sa poche and argent de la poche (1798), now argent de poche (1874); connaître comme sa poche (Flaubert, 1857).^[5] De poche meant first smaller than usual (1644) and then small enough for a pocket (1690); a poche was also the dancing master's pocket fiddle (1594).^[5][8] Poches sous les yeux is in Colette (1903).^[5] The old sense “bag” lives on in the west of France, in Switzerland (une poche en plastique) and in Canada, a sack for grain or flour.^[2][9]

Timeline

• c. 1180 – Puche “purse”, Marie de France.^[5]
• 1352 – A grain sack.^[5]
• 1377 – A cavity of the body.^[5]
• 1530 – A bird's crop, Palsgrave.^[5]
• 1573 – The pocket of a garment.^[5]
• 1594 – A pocket fiddle.^[8]
• 1690 – Les mains dans les poches, Furetière.^[5]
• 1874 – Argent de poche.^[5]
• 1935 – C'est dans la poche.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pocket in a garment: mettre la main dans sa poche, argent de poche, lampe de poche.^[9][10]
2. (regional, Switzerland, Canada) A bag, sack: une poche de farine, une poche en plastique.^[9][2]
3. A compartment of a bag or case.^[9][10]
4. A pouch of an animal, as of a marsupial; a cavity of the body: poches sous les yeux.^[1][5]
5. A pocket of a substance: poche d'air, poche de pétrole; an enclave in a front line.^[5][9]
6. (figurative) C'est dans la poche: it is in the bag, connaître comme sa poche, to know inside out, de sa poche, out of one's own money.^[5][1]
7. A piping bag: poche à douille.^[9][5]

Word family

• empocher
• rempocher
• pochette
• pochée
• pocher
• pochoir
• pochard
• poche-revolver

Related words

• English pocket
• English pouch

Usage notes

A separate poche “ladle”, from Late Latin popia “wooden spoon”, is used in Switzerland and in cheese-making.^[9][10][6] Acheter chat en poche “to buy a pig in a poke” keeps the old sense “bag”.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 16, 642a
8. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)