pouilleux

Forms

pouilleux (feminine pouilleuse, masculine plural pouilleux, feminine plural pouilleuses)^[1] Old French poeilleus (about 1175) and pooilleus (13th century); pouilleux is found about 1360, in Froissart.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from French pou + -eux, from the old form pouil of pou “louse”.^[4][3][5][6] The noun goes back to Vulgar Latin *peduculus, Latin pediculus (“louse”).^[7]

Littré took it directly from Latin pediculosus, comparing Old Occitan peoillos, Spanish piojoso, Portuguese piolhoso and Italian pidocchioso,^[8] and Wiktionary also allows peduclōsus.^[1] Meyer-Lübke lists it among the derivatives of the Vulgar Latin noun beside Romanian păduchios.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chrétien de Troyes uses it in Le Chevalier au lion (1176–81) for someone who has lice.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

By the 13th century it was also a noun for a lousy, wretched person, as in Eustache d'Amiens.^[4][6] By metonymy the adjective and the noun came to describe someone living in great poverty or squalor.^[6][2]

Specialized uses followed: a building timber that is starting to rot (1676) and, in geography, the least fertile parts of the Beauce, the Brie and Champagne (1753, Champagne pouilleuse).^[4][6] From 1859 it describes a sordid place marked by poverty.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1176–81 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for “having lice”.^[4]
• 13th century – It is used as a noun for a wretched person.^[4][6]
• c. 1360 – The spelling pouilleux appears in Froissart.^[2][3]
• 1676 – Félibien uses it of rotting, spotted timber.^[4]
• 1753 – The Encyclopédie has Champagne pouilleuse.^[4]
• 1859 – Maxime Du Camp uses it of a place marked by poverty.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Infested with lice or vermin: un chien pouilleux.^[5][4]
2. (dated) Living in extreme poverty, wretched.^[5][2]
3. Of things and places: squalid, sordid: une ruelle pouilleuse.^[5][4]
4. (geography) Of a region, barren and poor: la Champagne pouilleuse.^[5][8]

Noun

1. A person who has lice; a wretched, poverty-stricken person.^[5][1]
2. Le pouilleux: the jack of spades, in a card game.^[5]

Related words

• pou
• épouiller
• pouiller
• Latin pediculus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter