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Etymology and origin of the French word queux

queux1 cook

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1100 Chanson de Roland
Inherited from
Latin coquus via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin coquus
Etymology tree of queux1
inherited borrowed derived
Latin coquus
French queux
From the same root · queux1
Latin coquīna ← coquus
Latin coquīnus ← coquus

Pronunciation

Forms

queux m (invariable)[1] Old French cous (about 1100), keus and queu (about 1175).[2][3][4] The spelling queux dates from the early 16th century.[3][4]

Etymology

The word for the cook is inherited from Old French queu, inherited from Latin coquus (“cook”), also written cocus, which belongs with coquō (“to cook”).[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary calls it a doublet of coq.[1] Cognate with Italian cuoco, Old Occitan coc and Catalan coc.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded about 1100 in the Chanson de Roland, in the plural cous, meaning “cooks”.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides any cook, it named an office at court until the Revolution: the grand queux de France was the officer of the royal household in charge of the king's table.[2][3][6] Maître queux “master cook” is recorded in 1538 in Robert Estienne,[4][3] and it is now the only phrase in which the word lives, mostly in jest.[3][6][7]

Timeline

  • c. 1100 – Cous appears in the Chanson de Roland.[2][4]
  • c. 1165 – The form keu appears in Guillaume d'Angleterre.[2]
  • c. 1175 – The form queu is found in Chrétien de Troyes.[4][3]
  • c. 1280 – Li maistre ques appears in the Merveilles de Rigomer.[2]
  • Early 16th century – The spelling queux appears in Gringore.[4]
  • 1538 – Robert Estienne records maître queux.[4][3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) A cook.[2][1]
  2. Maître queux (or maître-queux): a cook, a chef, now old-fashioned or jocular.[7][8][9]
  3. (history) Grand queux de France: the officer of the royal household in charge of the king's table.[2]

queux2 whetstone

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1100–1125 first French translation of Marbode's Lapidary
Inherited from
Latin *cotis via Old French
Ultimate origin
Latin cōs

Pronunciation

Forms

queux f (invariable)[1] Old French cot (early 12th century), queuz (1176) and keus.[2][4] It has also been written queue since the late 14th century, and the Académie's editions of 1762 to 1798 enter it under that spelling.[4][2]

Etymology

The word for the whetstone is inherited from Old French queuz, inherited from Vulgar Latin *cōtis, an altered form of Latin cōs (“whetstone”).[4][1][9][10] The Grand Robert gives the Latin word's proper sense as “hard stone”.[10] Cognate with Romanian cute, Italian cote, Old Occitan cot and Catalan cot.[5][11] Littré also records dialect forms such as Picard keuche and Walloon keûs.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as cot “whetstone” in the first French translation of Marbode's Lapidary, in the first quarter of the 12th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès (1176) the stone is a touchstone, and tochier a la queuz means figuratively “to put to the test”.[2] Because it sounds like queue “tail”, it was often written that way;[5][2][4] Meyer-Lübke puts its disappearance from the dialects down to this merger.[5][2][4] In modern French it is an old-fashioned technical word, as in queux à faux (for scythes) and queux à l'huile (an oilstone).[2][11]

Timeline

  • 1100–1125 – Cot appears in the first French translation of Marbode's Lapidary.[2]
  • 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses queuz for a touchstone in Cligès.[2][4]
  • Late 13th century – The form keus appears in a verse adaptation of the Lapidary.[2]
  • Late 14th century – The spelling queue is found.[4]
  • 1694 – The Académie enters it as queux.[2]
  • 1762 – The Académie switches to the spelling queue.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dated) A whetstone.[2][1][9]
  2. Queux à faux: a whetstone for scythes, also queux à l'huile, an oilstone.[2][11]

Usage notes

Both words are homophones of queue “tail”.[7][2] The cook is masculine, the whetstone feminine.[1][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 t u v w x 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
  9. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
  10. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  11. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Queux.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/queux. Accessed 15 Nov. 2026.

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