pupitre

Forms

pupitre m (plural pupitres)^[1] Middle French pepistre (1357), pulpite (1374), pupistre (1444), pupitre (1467), popistre (1529).^[2][3][4] Poulpite in the 15th century and pulpitre in the 16th.^[5][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin pulpitum (“trestle, platform, stage”), adapted to French words ending in ⟨-tre⟩.^{[2][3][5][1][6]} Classical Latin used it for a platform or stage, “the boards”, and Late Latin church language for the reader's desk, the ambo, which probably had a sloping top for reading: hence the French sense.^[2] Rey suggests the Latin word was itself a technical borrowing.^[3] Wiktionary calls the French word a semi-learned borrowing.^[1] A closer form, Middle French poulpite, was borrowed from the same Latin word and later dropped out of use, and a fresh learned borrowing appears in 1520.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1357 as pepistre de l'eglise, a church lectern, a stand with a sloping top for books.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named church furniture, the lutrin on which books lay for reading or singing.^[3][2] By 1529 it named a desk for writing, and in 1690 Furetière records the schoolchildren's desk.^[2][3] In 1768 it named a small portable sloping board for writing on.^[2][3] Musicians gave it the sense of a music stand, whence être au pupitre “to conduct the orchestra”, and the players or singers of one part form a pupitre.^[3][7][4] It also names the slanted rack in which champagne bottles are turned during riddling.^[3]

In the late 1950s it was applied to the console holding the controls of a complex electronic system (1959), then of a computer (1968); its operator is a pupitreur (1966).^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1357 – Pepistre de l'eglise, a church lectern.^[2]
• 1374 – Pulpite, in Jean Golein's translation of Durand's Rationale.^[2]
• 1444 – The spelling pupistre.^[3][4]
• 1467 – The spelling pupitre.^[3][4]
• 1529 – Popistre, a writing desk.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records the schoolchildren's desk.^[2]
• 1768 – A small portable writing board.^[2]
• 1959 – An electronic control console.^[2][3]
• 1966 – The derivative pupitreur.^[2]
• 1968 – A computer console.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lectern or stand with a sloping top on which a book or sheet music is set at eye level: pupitre à musique.^[7][2]
2. Être au pupitre: to conduct the orchestra.^[7][4]
3. (music) A section of players of the same instrument, or of singers of the same voice: chef de pupitre, the section leader.^[7]
4. A small table with a sloping lid for writing, a school desk.^[7][1]
5. A console, a control panel of an electronic system or a computer.^[2][1]

Word family

• pupitreur

Related words

• Latin pulpitum

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 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 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. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 549a
7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert