racine

Forms

racine f (plural racines)^[1] Anglo-Norman also rachine and racin.^[2] Littré cites Picard rachaine.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rādīcīna (“root”), recorded in Pelagonius (mid-4th century), a derivative of rādīx (“root, base, foundation”).^[4][5][6][7] In Gallo-Romance it took the place of the direct outcome of the Latin word, Old French raiz, which survives only in raifort and in some southern dialects.^[7][5][8]

Rey relates the Latin word to rāmus (“branch”), and compares Old English rōt, the source of English root, and Welsh gwraidd (“root”), but adds that these words cannot be brought back to a single Indo-European root.^[5] The Petit Robert also compares Ancient Greek ῥίζα (rhíza, “root”).^[9]

Cognate with Romanian rădăcină, which has the same Late Latin source.^[5][7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in the Cambridge Psalter (first half of the 12th century), is figurative: the roots of the people of Israel, pictured as a vine.^[4][5] Wace's Brut (1155) already has the botanical sense, of roots eaten as food: vivre de racines Come bestes, “to live on roots like beasts”.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses, “tie, attachment” and “principle, source, cause”, are as old as the word;^[4][5] Wace also speaks of covetousness as the root of sin (1160–1174), and of a person's stock or lineage (1155).^[4][5] The sense “edible root” (about 1155) was still common in classical French but has aged, the word now being used mainly of trees and shrubs.^[5]

By likeness of position it named the base of a part of the body (about 1200, the root of the tongue), later the roots of the hair (before 1549) and of the teeth (1575), and the deepest part of a tumour.^[4][5] In the 13th century it became a term of mathematics, in racine carrée and racine cubique, and in the 16th century of grammar, for the stem of a word.^[5][4] Dyers' use of underground plants gave the sense “dye plant” (1636).^[5]

Prendre racine took the figurative sense “to settle for good” in 1629, and the familiar manger les pissenlits par la racine “to be dead” dates from the 19th century.^[5][11]

Timeline

• First half of the 12th century – The Cambridge Psalter uses it figuratively of Israel.^[4]
• 1155 – Wace uses it of edible roots, of a cause and of a person's lineage.^[4]
• c. 1160 – The Roman d'Eneas uses it of a medicinal root.^[4]
• c. 1200 – The Dialogues of Gregory speak of the root of the tongue.^[4][5]
• 13th century – Racine cube appears in a treatise on reckoning.^[4][3]
• 1548 – Sébillet uses it in grammar for the stem of a word, according to Rey; the TLFi's first record is Henri Estienne in 1578.^[5][4]
• 1575 – Ambroise Paré speaks of the roots of the teeth.^[4][5]
• 1629 – Prendre racine is used figuratively.^[5][11]
• 1869 – Littré records racine pivotante and racine adventive.^[5][11]
• 1875 – The algebraic sense “root of an equation” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The root of a plant, the part that fixes it in the soil and draws water and minerals from it, as in prendre racine “to take root”.^[4][9][1]
2. (figurative) Prendre racine: to settle somewhere for good, or to stay too long.^[5][9]
3. (anatomy) The root of a tooth, a hair, a nail or the tongue.^[4][9]
4. (figurative) The origin, source or cause of something: la racine du problème.^[4][1]
5. (figurative, chiefly plural) A person's roots, the ties to a place or a community of origin.^[5][9]
6. (mathematics) A root of a number or an equation: racine carrée, racine cubique.^[5][1]
7. (linguistics) The root of a word.^[4][1]
8. (dated) An edible root.^[5]

Word family

• déracinement
• déraciner
• enracinement
• enraciner
• racinaire
• raciner

Related words

• radical
• éradiquer
• raifort
• radis
• Latin rādīx

Usage notes

Manger les pissenlits par la racine “to push up daisies” is a familiar phrase for being dead.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 18b
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse