rainette

Forms

rainette f (plural rainettes)^[1] Old French ranete (14th century); rainette is recorded from 1425.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French raine + -ette, a diminutive of the old word for “frog”.^[2][5][1][6] The base (first half of the 12th century) is from Latin rāna (“frog”),^[2][3] a word Rey thinks probably onomatopoeic.^[3] The Latin word survives in nearly all the Romance languages: Italian rana, Spanish rana, Friulian rane.^[2] Littré compares Occitan raineta.^[7] From Latin diminutives come renoncule and grenouille, which replaced it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 14th century as ranetes in the Moamin, a treatise on falconry;^[2][4] in 1425 Olivier de La Haye's poem on the great plague lists rainettes et petiz crapeaux “tree frogs and little toads”.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named a small frog with suckers on its toes that often lives in trees near water.^[3][2] The base raine lived on until the 17th century and was still used in the Encyclopédie (1765) for the tree frog, and it survives in some dialects of Walloon, Picard, the southern Vosges, French-speaking Switzerland and the Rhône region.^[3] The TLFi labels it old or regional.^[2] Rey suggests that rainette may have been kept alive by its sameness of sound with reinette, the apple, from reine.^[3]

Cotgrave (1611) also gives it as a name for a pawn at chess.^[9] The BHVF records a jocular use for a young person.^[10]

Timeline

• first half of the 12th century – The base raine “frog” is recorded.^[2]
• 14th century – Ranetes appears in the Moamin.^[2][4]
• 1425 – Olivier de La Haye writes rainettes.^[2]
• 1611 – Cotgrave glosses it “a little frog”.^[9]
• 1765 – The Encyclopédie still uses raine for the tree frog.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree frog, a small, usually green frog whose toes end in suckers and which lives in trees near water.^[11][2][1]

Related words

• raine
• grenouille
• renoncule
• Latin rāna

Usage notes

Rainette is pronounced like reinette, a variety of apple;^[11][7] Littré lists the apple under this spelling too.^[11][7] A second rainette (also rénette), the Grand Robert's rainette 2, is a farrier's knife for paring a horse's hoof and a tool with a hooked cutting point for scoring wood or leather;^[2][4] it has a separate source and is recorded as royenette in the 13th century.^[12][4] The Grand Robert derives it from rainer,^[12] the GLLF from the old form roisne of rouanne.^[4]

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 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 e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 52a
7. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ a b Cotgrave, Randle (1611), A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: Adam Islip
10. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert