rébus

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ʁe.bys/^[1]
• IPA: /ʁe.by/^[1]

Forms

rébus m (invariable)^[1] Written rebus by the Académie in 1694, later rébus.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rēbus (“by means of things”), the ablative plural of rēs (“thing”) (the source of rien),^{[2][3][1][4][5]} but how it came to name the puzzle is disputed.^[2][3]

Ménage traced it to the Latin formula “de rebus quae geruntur” (“about the things that are going on”), the heading of satirical pieces with riddling drawings that the law clerks of Picardy wrote at Carnival;^[6][3][7][8] Bloch and Wartburg and Wartburg's FEW reject this, as “rébus de Picardie” is recorded much later, and see in it “by things” as opposed to “by letters”, words being shown by pictures of things.^{[9][3][2][10]} The TLFi objects that the earliest sense, “equivocal word”, is not about pictures.^[2] Pierre Guiraud saw a deliberate pun on rebous, a variant of rebours “the wrong way round”, which also meant a riddle; the picture puzzles would then be a later sense tied to the Latin.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Guillaume Alexis (about 1480; the TLFi dates the text 1512) rhymes rebus with abus: the rebus of Venus, Mars and Cupid “are nothing but deceit”, that is, words taken in another sense than their natural one.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Rabelais (1546) a rebus is a figurative, conventional language: the monks called the cloister kitchen “the holy chapel” in their rebus.^[2][6] The picture puzzle appears in Marot (before 1535): in a rebus de Picardie a currycomb, a scythe and a calf (estrille, faulx, veau) spell estrille Fauveau.^[2][6] In the late 16th century Des Accords describes a fashion for devises par seules peintures called rebus, and Brantôme mentions the rebus d'Arras.^[6][9]

The sense “blunder” (Brantôme) and “bad pun” lasted into 19th-century dictionaries,^[2][3][4] and parler rébus meant to speak obscurely (1845).^[2] Today a rébus is the picture puzzle, and figuratively an enigma or illegible handwriting.^[8][11]

Timeline

• c. 1480 – “Equivocal word” (Guillaume Alexis).^[3][4]
• before 1535 – Rebus de Picardie, a picture puzzle (Marot).^[2]
• 1546 – A conventional language (Rabelais).^[2]
• 1583–1590 – “Blunder” (Brantôme).^[2]
• 1694 – First recorded by the Académie, as rebus.^[2]
• 1845 – Parler rébus “to speak obscurely”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rebus, a puzzle of pictures, letters and numbers whose names sound out a word or phrase.^[8][11]
2. (figurative) An enigma; writing that is hard to make out.^[8][11]

Related words

• rien
• rebours
• Latin rēs
• English rebus

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 m n o 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 287a
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
10. ^ Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)