poire

Forms

poire f (plural poires)^[1] Old French and Anglo-Norman peire and pere.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French peire, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pira, the neuter plural of Latin pirum (“pear”) taken as a feminine singular, as with cerise, pomme and prune.^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin noun goes with pirus (“pear tree”), which survives in all the Romance languages and also passed into Celtic and into Old High German bira and German Birne.^[5] Rey thinks it is of unknown origin, like most names of fruit trees, and probably borrowed from the same language as Ancient Greek ἄπιος (ápios, “pear tree”).^[5]

Cognate with Italian pera, Spanish pera, Catalan pera, Portuguese pera and Romanian pară.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1165 in Guillaume d'Angleterre, as the name of the pear.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

Old French already had poire d'angoisse, a very sour pear (about 1300), whose name was later transferred to an iron gag that stifled cries, and figuratively to bitter troubles (about 1433, Charles d'Orléans).^[3][5] Bloch and Wartburg explain the pear's name by the village of Angoisse in the Dordogne and the figurative sense as a pun.^[4][8]

The shape of the fruit gave en poire (1546) and names for pear-shaped objects: a small flask (1380), a powder flask (1669, poire à poudre 1797), the counterweight of a steelyard (1723), an oblong pearl (1829), a rubber bulb (1870) and an electric switch (1876).^[5][3] Se garder une poire pour la soif “to keep something for a rainy day” dates from 1640, and ne pas promettre poires molles “to threaten harsh treatment” from 1671.^[5][3]

In the second half of the 19th century poire came to mean “face”: faire sa poire “to put on a disdainful air” (1858), then the face itself (1872);^[5][3] the TLFi links this sense to the famous caricature that drew King Louis-Philippe's head as a pear.^[3] From 1888 a poire is also a gullible person, a dupe, as in une bonne poire (Courteline, 1893).^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Poire “pear” in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[3]
• c. 1300 – Poire d'angoisse names a kind of pear.^[3]
• 1380 – A pear-shaped flask in the inventory of Charles V.^[3]
• 1546 – En poire “pear-shaped” is recorded.^[5]
• 1640 – Se garder une poire pour la soif in a letter of Chapelain.^[3]
• 1797 – Poire à poudre “powder flask”.^[3][5]
• 1870 – A rubber bulb.^[3]
• 1872 – Slang “face”.^[3]
• 1888 – “Dupe”, at first as an adjective.^[3]
• 1893 – Une bonne poire in Courteline's Boubouroche.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pear, the fleshy, pipped fruit of the pear tree.^[9][10][11]
2. Pear brandy.^[10][1]
3. A pear-shaped object, especially a rubber bulb pressed to blow or suck air: poire à lavement.^[10][11]
4. Poire électrique: a pear-shaped switch at the end of a flex.^[11][10]
5. (jewellery) A pear-shaped pearl or gem.^[10][5]
6. (butchery) A cut of the beef topside.^[10][1]
7. (familiar) The face: en pleine poire “full in the face”.^[11][10][5]
8. (familiar) A sucker, a person easily fooled; also used as an adjective.^[11][10]
9. Couper la poire en deux: to split the difference, to compromise.^[11][10]
10. Entre la poire et le fromage: at the end of the meal, when talk is free.^[10][12]
11. Garder une poire pour la soif: to put something by for later needs.^[11][10]

Word family

• poirier
• poiré

Related words

• Latin pirum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 8, 572b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b c d e f g Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette