provin

Forms

provin m (plural provins)^[1] Old French provain, used until the 16th century;^[2][3][4] provin is a remaking of 1538.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French provain, inherited from Latin prōpāgō (“layer, slip, offshoot, lineage”), through its accusative.^[5][3][2][6] The Latin noun belongs with the verb of the same spelling, “to propagate by layering”, the source of propager.^[2][3] Littré notes the change of gender, and that the stress on the second syllable of the accusative gave the Old French form.^[7]

Cognate with Italian propaggine, Spanish provena and Old Occitan probaina.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Miserere of the Reclus de Molliens (about 1225), uses provain figuratively for “consequence” (of a sin).^[5][3][8]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, a vine stock or shoot bent down and fixed in the earth to take root and multiply, is found about 1250.^[5][3] By metaphor the word meant numerous offspring or descendants from the 14th century, as in a psalter that calls the people of Israel the provainz of God's vine; this use died out in the classical period.^[5][3][7]

By metonymy, or through provigner, it came to mean the trench in which the shoot is laid (Larousse, 1904).^[3][4] Littré cites the Berry forms prouin and perouin.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – Provain means “consequence” in the Reclus de Molliens.^[5]
• c. 1250 – First used for a layered vine shoot.^[5][3]
• 14th century – It means “offspring, descendants”.^[5][3]
• 1538 – The form provin appears.^[3][4]
• 1904 – Larousse records the sense “layering trench”.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (viticulture) A vine shoot or branch bent down and buried so that it takes root, then cut from the parent plant; a marcotte (layer).^[5][9][10]
2. (by metonymy) The small trench in which the shoot is laid.^[5][4]

Word family

• provigner
• provignement

Related words

• propager
• Latin prōpāgō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 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, 446b
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)