raie

raie¹ line, stripe, furrow

Etymology tree of raie¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin riga

French raie

Pronunciation

• /ʁɛ/^[1]

Forms

raie f (plural raies)^[1] Old French reie (early 12th century), roie (about 1155); raie from about 1360.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for the furrow or line is inherited from Old French roie, inherited from Late Latin riga (“furrow, line”), which is recorded in Late Latin beside rega and rige.^[4][5][2] The Latin word is taken to represent a Gaulish *rica (“furrow”), reconstructed from Old Irish rech, Welsh rhych and Old Breton rec and found all over the Gallo-Romance area.^[4][2][5][6] Wiktionary traces the Gaulish word to Proto-Celtic *ɸrikā (“furrow”).^[1] Rey notes that the word was crossed with rai, since both meant a straight line.^[2]

Littré kept two articles, taking the furrow from Latin rigō (“to water”) and the line from a feminine form beside Latin radius (“ray”).^[7] The Old Occitan form is rega (“furrow”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Reie first appears early in the 12th century, in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne (about 1140 according to the TLFi), meaning a furrow opened by the plough.^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The furrow sense stayed alive in rural speech in several regions into the 20th century.^[2] From 1690 the word also named the line between two furrows and the last furrow that bounds a ploughed field.^[2][3]

From the 12th century it also meant a line traced or scored on something (about 1170, Chrétien de Troyes).^[4][2] From the 13th century it named a band of another colour on cloth or paper (1266) and a shallow groove on the body, as in la raie du dos and la raie des fesses.^[2][4] The parting of the hair is recorded from the 15th century.^[4][8] Buffon used it in 1770 for the stripe on an animal's coat.^[3][2] In the centre of France and in Franche-Comté it is a square of a chocolate bar, as in Pergaud's La Guerre des boutons (1912).^[2] Physics took it up in 1861 for a line of the spectrum, raie spectrale.^[2][9]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – Reie “furrow” appears in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne.^[4]
• c. 1155 – Wace writes roie.^[3][2]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for a traced line.^[4]
• 1266 – Names a coloured band on cloth.^[3][2]
• About 1360 – The spelling raie appears, in Froissart.^[3]
• 15th century – First used for the parting of the hair.^[4]
• 1690 – Furetière records the line between two furrows.^[3]
• 1770 – Buffon uses it for a stripe on an animal's coat.^[3]
• 1861 – Used for a line of the spectrum.^[2][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A line or thin band drawn or scored on a surface.^[9][10]
2. A stripe on cloth, paper or an animal's coat: un tissu à raies.^[9][11][10]
3. (familiar) La raie des fesses: the cleft between the buttocks.^[9][11]
4. The parting of the hair.^[9][11]
5. (agriculture) A furrow made by the plough.^[9][4]
6. (physics) A spectral line.^[9][2]

Word family

• rayer

raie² ray, skate (fish)

Etymology tree of raie²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin raia

French raie

Spanish raya

Italian raia

From the same root · raie²

English ray ← raia

Pronunciation

• /ʁɛ/^[1]

Forms

raie f (plural raies)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the fish is inherited from Latin raia (“ray”).^{[4][12][13][1]} Rey treats it as a borrowing of 1155 and calls the Latin word, found in Pliny, of no established origin.^[2]

Cognate with Old Occitan raia, Spanish raya and Portuguese arraia; Italian razza comes from Venetian.^[14][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears in 1155, in Wace's Roman de Brut, as the name of the flat fish; the Grand Robert gives 1115.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy the word has meant the edible flesh of the fish since about 1398, as in raie au beurre noir.^[2][9] Of the diminutives tried for the young fish, only raiton (1771, from a Norman rayton of 1553) survived.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 1155 – First recorded in Wace's Roman de Brut.^[4][2]
• About 1398 – Names the fish's flesh as food.^[2]
• 1553 – The diminutive rayton is recorded.^[12][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ray or skate, a cartilaginous fish with a flattened, diamond-shaped body and broad pectoral fins.^[9][4]
2. Its flesh as food: raie au beurre noir.^[9][2]
3. (familiar) Gueule de raie (also face): an insult to someone whose face one dislikes.^[9]