rail

Forms

rail m (plural rails)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English rail, which by 1734 named a bar, and then a line of bars of wood and later of iron or steel, guiding and bearing the wheels of carts.^[2][3][4] The English word goes back to Old French reille or raille “bar, beam”, from Latin rēgula (“rule, bar”).^[2][5][3][6] It is thus a doublet of règle, which came down from the same Latin word.^[1][3]

It was first cited in 1817 as an English term in a note on English railways, and is found adopted in French from 1825.^[2][4][3] Rey, following Wexler, notes that it took a long time to prevail over a crowd of French terms for the same thing, among them guide, bande¹, tringle, plaque, barreau, ornière and limande; it won through the influence of English railway techniques and the choices of French engineers such as Seguin and Biot, who built the Saint-Étienne–Lyon line begun in 1826.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In 1817 a technical bulletin glossed rails as the iron plates or strips on which the carriages of English railways ran.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the bar of the track the word passed to the track itself (1826) and, in the singular, to rail transport (1836 according to Rey, 1898 in the TLFi), often set against the road: les hommes du rail “railwaymen” is found in Pierre Hamp in 1909.^[3][2][7] Figurative uses appeared early: Balzac wrote sortir des rails de la vertu in 1836.^[2][3] The phrase remettre sur les rails “to put back on track” is recorded in Le Monde in 1958.^[8]

A later borrowing of the English word gave the sense “metal crash barrier” along roads and racing tracks (1970), and at sea rail is a lane assigned to shipping.^[3][9] By analogy it also names any metal track along which something slides, such as a curtain rail.^[2]

Timeline

• 1817 – Rails is cited as an English word in a note on English railways.^[2][4]
• 1825 – The word is used as French in a journal of English arts and trades.^[2][4]
• 1826 – It names the railway track itself.^[2][3]
• 1836 – Balzac uses it figuratively: sortir des rails de la vertu.^[2]
• 1838 – The verb dérayer “to leave the rails” appears, followed by dérailler in 1842.^[3]
• 1909 – Pierre Hamp writes of ces hommes du rail.^[7][3]
• 1958 – Remettre sur les rails is used figuratively in Le Monde.^[8]
• 1970 – Borrowed again from English for a roadside crash barrier.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. One of the two steel bars laid end to end on sleepers to form a railway track; mostly plural: les rails.^[10][2][11]
2. The railway as a means of transport: le transport par rail.^[9][8]
3. A metal track that guides a sliding part: un rail de rideau (curtain rail).^[2]
4. Rail de sécurité: a metal guardrail along a road.^[2][3]
5. (shipping) A sea lane imposed on ships in busy waters.^[9][3]
6. (figurative) Remettre sur les rails: to set something going again in the right way: Le nouveau directeur a remis l'entreprise sur les rails.^[8][10]

Word family

• dérailler
• monorail
• contre-rail
• entre-rail

Related words

• railway
• règle
• Latin rēgula
• English rail

Usage notes

In the 19th century some pronounced the word as French rall with a palatal ll, others in the English way, as Littré noted.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
10. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
12. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette