Etymologically
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quai

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Pronunciation

Forms

quai m (plural quais)[1] Picard kay (1311), kai (Froissart); quay in the 15th and 16th centuries.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French kay, a Norman–Picard word, probably inherited from Gaulish caio (“enclosure”), a Gaulish word recorded in a gloss.[2][4][5][6] The Celtic languages support it: Old Irish cai (“house”), Welsh cae (“hedge, field”) and Old Breton cai (“hedge”).[4][5] The word is attested indirectly from 1167 through the Medieval Latin caiagium, a Latinized form of quayage, the toll paid for using a quay.[2][5][7] The central French outcome of the same Gaulish word is chai, a wine store.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A charter of Ponthieu (1311) has Picard kay for an embankment along a river.[2][4] In the 15th century Froissart's chronicle has au kai a Londrez, the landing place of the port of London.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “bank of a port fitted for boats to land” is that of Froissart, about 1360 according to the GLLF.[7][2] Pomey in 1671 records the stone-faced embankment of a river, and Furetière in 1690 the street running between the houses and the water.[7][4] In Paris le quai d'Orsay came to mean the Foreign Ministry (1904) and le quai des Orfèvres the criminal police (1962).[7][6] With the railways, Bescherelle in 1845 records the platform of a station, and être à quai, of a ship alongside, is in Littré in 1869.[2][7]

Timeline

  • 1167 – Medieval Latin caiagium, the quay toll.[2][5]
  • 1311 – Kay in a Picard charter.[2]
  • 15th century – Kai in Froissart, a harbour quay.[2]
  • 1671 – A stone embankment of a river, in Pomey.[7]
  • 1690 – A riverside street, in Furetière.[7]
  • 1845 – A railway platform, in Bescherelle.[2]
  • 1869 – Être à quai, in Littré.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A quay, wharf: the part of a port where ships moor, load and unload: navire à quai.[6][8]
  2. A stone embankment along a river or canal, and the street that runs along it: les quais de la Seine, les bouquinistes des quais.[6][8]
  3. A railway or metro platform.[8][1]
  4. Le Quai d'Orsay, le Quai: the French Foreign Ministry, le Quai des Orfèvres: the Paris criminal police.[6][1]

Word family

  • quayage
  • chai
  • English quay

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  6. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  8. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)