râteau

Forms

râteau m (plural râteaux)^[1] Old French rastel (about 1180), then ratteau (about 1460), rastiau (1473) and rateau (1534); the circumflex is written from 1636.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rastel, inherited from Latin rastellus, a diminutive of raster (“mattock, rake”).^{[5][3][4][1][6]} The Latin base, beside the neuter rastrum, named a tool between a fork, a hoe and a rake, and comes by contraction from a form built on rādō (“to scrape, scratch, shave”).^[2][7][8]

Cognate with Italian rastrello, Spanish rastillo, rastrillo and Walloon ristai.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alexandre de Paris' Roman d'Alexandre (1180–90) has rastel for the farm tool.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

Its extended senses rest on likeness of shape or use.^[2] The oldest is the ward of a lock whose teeth pass through the notches of a key (1473, or 1490), and the word was taken up for the toothed segment that regulates a watch (1752).^[5][2][3] Closer to the tool are a rake for taking fish and shellfish out of the sand (1752), a large weaver's comb for setting up the warp (1765) and, best known, the croupier's rake at the gaming table (1831, Balzac).^[5][2]

In the 20th century it became a zoological term for a row of strong teeth in some trapdoor spiders (1932).^[2][3] From the slapstick image of someone treading on a rake and getting the handle in the face came (se) prendre un râteau “to fail badly” in the 1990s, probably helped by rater, and above all “to be turned down”.^[2][7] In Switzerland, the Doubs and the Jura it means a grasping, miserly person.^[2]

Timeline

• 1180–90 – Rastel appears in Alexandre de Paris.^[5]
• c. 1220 – The verb râteler is recorded as rasteler.^[2]
• c. 1460 – Villon writes ratteau.^[3][2]
• 1473 – Rasteau is used for the ward of a lock.^[5]
• 1534 – The spelling rateau appears.^[3][2]
• 1636 – Monet writes râteau with the circumflex.^[3][2]
• 1752 – The Trévoux dictionary has the watchmaking and fishing senses.^[5]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie uses it for a weaver's comb.^[5]
• 1831 – Balzac uses it for the croupier's rake.^[5][2]
• 1990s – Prendre un râteau comes into use.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rake: a garden or farm tool with a long handle and a toothed crossbar, used to gather leaves or hay and to level the soil: passer le râteau dans les allées.^[7][5][9]
2. The croupier's rake used to gather in the stakes at a gaming table.^[5][8]
3. (fishing) A rake for taking fish and shellfish out of the sand.^[8][5]
4. (technical) The ward of a lock; in watchmaking, a toothed segment that regulates the movement.^[8][3]
5. (familiar) (Se) prendre un râteau: to be turned down, to be rebuffed.^[7][1]

Word family

• râtelée
• râteler

Related words

• ratisser
• raser
• Latin rastellus

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 l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 94a
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)