quenouille

Forms

quenouille f (plural quenouilles)^[1] Old French quenoille and conoille;^[2][3] quenouille is a remodelling of about 1278.^[2][3] Littré cites the 14th-century form quelongne and Froissart's keneules.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French quenoille, inherited from Late Latin conucula (“distaff”).^[3][2][1][5] This form arose by dissimilation of the first ⟨l⟩ from colucula, a popular extension (6th century) of Latin colus (“distaff”).^[3][6][2] Rey compares the Latin word with Ancient Greek πόλος (pólos) (whence pôle) and traces both to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *kʷel- (“to turn”).^[2]

Cognate with Italian conocchia and Old Occitan conolha.^[7][4] The earlier form gave German Kunkel and Irish cuicel, and Littré notes that the dialect forms with ⟨l⟩, such as Genevan cologne, stay closer to the Latin.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as quenoille in the Roman de Renart (about 1179), meaning a distaff, the staff that holds the fibre to be spun.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy the word also named the fibre loaded on the distaff (about 1278).^[2] As the emblem of women's work from the Middle Ages to the classical period, it entered the phrase tomber en quenouille, said of a house or estate that passed by inheritance to a woman (recorded by Nicot in 1606), and later, from Proust (1913), of something left to decline.^[3][2]

From the 16th century on, likenesses of shape gave it new uses: a post holding up a canopy or bed tester (1495), a familiar name for the penis (1718), the stem and spike of tall plants (1797), especially reeds, and a tapering way of training fruit trees (1821).^[3][2] The plant sense survives in regional French of the West and passed into Quebec French, where it is still alive.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1179 – Quenoille appears in the Roman de Renart.^[3]
• c. 1278 – The form quenouille and the sense “fibre on the distaff” are recorded.^[2]
• 1495 – Quenoulles names the posts supporting a canopy or bed tester.^[3]
• 1552 – The derivative quenouillée appears.^[3]
• 1606 – Nicot records tomber en quenouille.^[3]
• 1718 – Used as a familiar word for the penis.^[2]
• 1797 – Chateaubriand uses it for a tall, slender plant.^[3]
• 1821 – Applied to the tapering shape given to fruit trees.^[3]
• 1913 – Proust uses tomber en quenouille for “to fall into neglect”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A distaff: a staff with the raw fibre to be spun with the fuseau or spinning wheel wound round its top.^[8][9]
2. The fibre wound on such a staff.^[6]
3. Tomber en quenouille: (dated) of an estate, to pass to a woman by inheritance, (literary) to be left to decline.^[8][10]
4. (arboriculture) A fruit tree trained to a tall, tapering shape.^[8][3]
5. Each of the posts holding up the canopy of a bed.^[3]
6. (regional) In Quebec and western France, the cattail or reed mace.^[1][9]
7. (metallurgy) A metal rod with a refractory plug, used to stop the outlet of a ladle.^[9]

Word family

• quenouillée

Usage notes

Littré insists on the pronunciation with palatal ⟨ll⟩, not ke-nou-ye.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
4. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 2, 928b
6. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)