Etymologically
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râble

Etymology and origin of the French word râble

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Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1246, roaule
Ultimate origin
Latin (ruō)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
French râble
English rabble

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ʁabl/[1]
  • IPA: /ʁɑbl/[1]

Forms

râble m (plural râbles)[1] Roaule (1246), rouable, reable (1388), raable (1401); the Académie wrote rable until 1740.[2][3]

Etymology

It is Old French roable, from Latin rutābulum (“baker's oven rake”),[2][3][4][5] a technical word formed from the supine “rutum” of ruō (“to throw down; to rush”);[3][6] Rey notes it was also a familiar Latin word for the penis.[3] Cognate with Old Occitan redable.[4]

The sense “back of a hare or rabbit” (1532) is probably the same word used by metaphor, some rakes having prongs set in the bar as the spine has its ribs, according to Bloch;[4][7][8] Littré thought instead of Spanish rabo (“tail”).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A letter of the Count of Bar (1246) has roaule for a toothless rake used to clear mud from ditches;[2] a 13th-century fabliau uses rouable for an oven rake.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names a long-handled tool with a bent end for stirring embers or molten matter: a baker's rake, a metal-worker's rabble (1762) and a salt-maker's rake for drawing salt from the pan.[2][3][6] By likeness of shape it was a term of boat-building (1505, 1625).[2][3]

Rabelais (1532) first uses it for the back of a quadruped from the shoulders to the tail, now chiefly in cooking (râble de lapin).[3][8] Familiarly it is a person's back (1599), as in tomber sur le râble à qqn “to set upon someone”.[3][6] The adjective râblé “stocky” (about 1570) is common.[3]

Timeline

  • 1246 – Roaule “ditch rake”.[2]
  • 1401 – Raable in the royal household accounts.[2]
  • 1532 – The back of an animal, in Rabelais.[3]
  • c. 1570 – Râblé.[3]
  • 1599 – A person's back.[3]
  • 1762 – A metal-worker's rabble.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The back of a hare or rabbit, (cooking) the saddle: râble de lièvre.[8][10]
  2. (familiar) A person's back: tomber sur le râble à qqn.[8][10]
  3. (technical) A rake or rabble for stirring embers or molten metal; a salt-worker's rake.[8][6]

Word family

  • râblé
  • râbler

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 597b
  6. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
  8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
  10. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)

Borrowed into

Cite this entry

“Râble.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/fr/r%C3%A2ble. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

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