poivre

Forms

poivre m (plural poivres)^[1] Old French peivere, peivre, poevre; the word was sometimes feminine in Old French.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman spellings include peivre, pevre and poivre.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French peivre, inherited from Latin piper (“pepper”).^[1][2][6][7] The older form peivere (about 1140) still had three syllables;^[3][2] the spelling with ⟨oi⟩ is found from about 1175 in Chrétien de Troyes.^[4][8]

The Latin word, not recorded before Varro, is a trade loan, pepper being an eastern spice much sought after since antiquity.^[3] The TLFi takes it from Ancient Greek πέπερι (péperi), itself borrowed from the East;^[2] Rey says the Greek word may have served as the intermediary, and compares Sanskrit पिप्पलि (pippali, “long pepper”), whose ⟨l⟩ he places in eastern India, while the forms with ⟨r⟩ would come from western India.^[3][1] The Latin word survives across the Romance languages:^[3] cognates are Italian pepe, Walloon peûv, Occitan pebre, Catalan pebre and Spanish pebre.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found about 1140 as peivere in the Voyage de Charlemagne, meaning the berry of the pepper plant.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Varieties were named early: poivre noir about 1280, poivre blanc in 1298 in the book of Marco Polo, and poivre long in the 13th century, which also named other fruits used as condiments.^[2][3][4] Grain de poivre expressed a tiny value, as in ne valoir un grain de poivre (Jean de Meun, about 1278).^[2][3]

From the 13th century the word entered comparisons such as plus noirs que poivres (1225–30, of people) and figurative phrases: braier tel poevre “to stir up such trouble” in Jean de Meun is long gone.^[2][3] Chier du poivre à quelqu'un “to play someone a nasty trick” is recorded in 1739, and used absolutely for “to desert” in 1901.^[2][3] Piler du poivre was said in 1765 of the last rank of a column marking time, then of a rider tired by a hard trot (1833) and of someone waiting impatiently while pacing up and down (1866).^[2][3]

Figuratively, pepper became what gives a work its sting: Regnard opposed le poivre tragique to le sel comique in 1692, and the wider sense “what gives zest” spread at the end of the 19th century.^[2][3] In slang it meant syphilis (1608 according to the DHLF, the TLFi citing a 1733 edition of Mathurin Régnier), poison (1821) and brandy (1837), perhaps because some taverns served brandy mixed with pepper; these senses have gone, but a drunk man was long called un poivre (1835), and poivre was used as an adjective for “drunk” in 1861.^[2][3] The phrase poivre et sel (1867), of greying hair, is probably a calque of the English pepper and salt, used of cloth since 1774.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – Peivere appears in the Voyage de Charlemagne.^[2][3]
• c. 1175 – The form poivre is found in Chrétien de Troyes.^[4]
• 1225–1230 – The comparison plus noirs que poivres is used of people.^[2][3]
• c. 1278 – Jean de Meun uses grain de poivre for a thing of no value.^[2][3]
• c. 1280 – Poivre noir is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1298 – Poivre blanc in the book of Marco Polo.^[3][4]
• 1608 – First slang use for syphilis, in Mathurin Régnier.^[3]
• 1692 – Regnard uses it for the sting of a literary work.^[2][3]
• 1739 – Chier du poivre à quelqu'un is recorded.^[2]
• 1765 – Piler du poivre is said of troops marking time.^[2]
• 1835 – Un poivre is used for a drunk man.^[2][3]
• 1867 – Delvau records poivre et sel of hair.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. pepper, the hot spice made from the dried fruit of the pepper plant: poivre en grains, poivre moulu.^[11][2]
2. Poivre noir, poivre gris: pepper whose corns keep their husk;^[11] poivre blanc: husked pepper, less hot;^[11] poivre vert: pepper picked unripe.^[11]
3. The dried fruit of another plant used as a spice: poivre de Cayenne, poivre long, poivre rose.^[11]
4. Poivre et sel (adjective phrase): of hair or a beard, dark mixed with white, greying.^[11][2]
5. (figurative) What gives zest or a biting edge to something.^[2][3]

Word family

• poivrade
• poivrer
• poivrier
• poivrière
• poivrot
• poivron

Related words

• Latin piper
• Ancient Greek πέπερι (péperi)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 y 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 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
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ 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, 552b
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert