pourceau

Forms

pourceau m (plural pourceaux)^[1] Old French purcel, porcel, pourcel, plural porciaus;^[2][3][4] Middle French pourciau (about 1380).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French pourcel, inherited from Latin porcellus (“suckling pig, young pig”), a diminutive of porcus (“pig”) (see porc).^[5][2][6][7] The modern singular (1487) was made from the plural porciaus.^[2]

Cognate with Walloon poursai, Picard porchieu, Occitan porcel, Spanish porcel and Italian porcello.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134) has purcel for the pig.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle French the word was a general name for the pig; it survives in that sense in the dialects of the north-east, Lorraine, the west and Languedoc, but in the standard language it gave way to porc and cochon and is now mostly written or literary.^[2][7] It lives on in the phrase of biblical origin first found as respandre ses pierres precïeuses au pourcel (about 1223), then jeter ses joiaus entre porciaus (13th century) and jeter ses marguerites devant les pourceaux (1535), a Latinism after the Vulgate's margaritas ante porcos; the modern form is jeter des perles aux pourceaux.^[2][5]

After Horace's “pig of Epicurus' herd”, Ronsard wrote pourceau d'Épicure (1574) for a man given to pleasure.^[5][2] Like porc and cochon, it came to mean a glutton (1679) and a fat man (1690).^[5][2] With a qualifier it named animals: pourceau de mer a porpoise (1611), pourceau ferré the hedgehog (1845) and petit pourceau a hawk moth (1877).^[2]

Timeline

• 1121–1134 – Purcel appears in Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire.^[5]
• c. 1223 – Gautier de Coinci writes of scattering precious stones before the pig.^[5]
• c. 1283 – The form pourcel is found in Beaumanoir.^[4]
• 1487 – The singular pourceau is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1535 – Jeter ses marguerites devant les pourceaux in a Bible translation.^[5]
• 1574 – Ronsard uses pourceau d'Épicure.^[5]
• 1611 – Cotgrave records pourceau de mer.^[5]
• 1679 – Richelet records the sense “man who lives only to eat”.^[5]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense “fat man”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or literary) A pig, swine.^[9][5]
2. Jeter des perles aux pourceaux: to offer something precious to people unable to appreciate it.^[9][5]
3. (figurative) A dirty or disgusting person, one who eats greedily.^[5][4]
4. (literary, dated) Pourceau d'Épicure: a man given to the pleasures of the senses, a sensualist.^[9][4]

Related words

• porc
• porcelet
• Latin porcellus

Usage notes

Littré records le pourceau de saint Antoine, the pig painters show beside Saint Anthony.^[8] The diminutive porcelet (about 1210) was formed on the old form porcel.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 185a
7. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert