rameau

Forms

rameau m (plural rameaux)^[1] Old French ramel; the modern form is found from the 13th century.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ramel, inherited from Vulgar Latin *ramellus, a diminutive of Latin rāmus (“branch, ramification”).^[2][5][3][6] Rey calls the Latin word of unknown origin.^[5] The Latin word itself gave Old French raim, ram and rame, which branche replaced in the 16th century, though it lives on in derivatives such as ramage, ramée and ramure.^[5]

The plural, meaning Palm Sunday, follows Ecclesiastical Latin dominica in ramis palmarum (“the Sunday in the palm branches”), with dies ramorum and ramorum festum.^[2][5] Before it Old French said jor del ramispalmaus (late 12th century).^[5][7]

Cognate with Old Occitan ramel.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses ramel for a small branch of a tree in the Roman de Troie about 1165.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word names a small branch growing from a main one, and in the plural the Christian feast of Palm Sunday, which commemorates the palm branches strewn before Jesus at his entry into Jerusalem: feste des Rameaux (1549), jour des Rameaux (1660), dimanche des Rameaux (1669), and in the 20th century les Rameaux alone.^[5][2] The phrase faire Pâques avant les Rameaux (1907) meant to consummate a marriage before the wedding.^[5]

From the 16th century, probably under the influence of se ramifier, it was used of anything that divides into branches: a branch of an artery, vein or nerve in anatomy (about 1560), an arm of a river (about 1580), a small mine gallery off a main one (1676), a branch of a family (1690), a secondary chain of mountains (1796) and a line of the hand in palmistry (1904).^[5][4] From before 1747 it also named a subdivision of a science or of a subject.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1165 – Ramel “small branch” in Benoît de Sainte-Maure's Roman de Troie.^[2][5]
• late 12th century – Jor del ramispalmaus names Palm Sunday.^[5][7]
• 1520 – First figurative use for a branch of a family line.^[2]
• 1549 – Estienne records feste des Rameaux.^[2][5]
• 1562 – Paré uses it in anatomy.^[2]
• 1580–81 – Montaigne uses it for an arm of a river.^[2]
• 1669 – Dimanche des Rameaux is recorded.^[2][5]
• 1676 – A small gallery in mining and siege works.^[5][4]
• before 1747 – Vauvenargues uses it for a subdivision of a science.^[2]
• 1907 – Faire Pâques avant Rameaux appears in Anatole France.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small branch growing from a larger one, a twig or bough: un rameau d'olivier.^[7][2]
2. (plural, capitalised) les Rameaux, le dimanche des Rameaux: Palm Sunday.^[7][2]
3. (anatomy) A branch of an artery, vein or nerve.^[4][2]
4. A subdivision of something that branches: a branch of a family, a secondary mountain chain, a branch of a science.^[4][2]

Related words

• ramée
• ramure
• ramage
• ramifier
• ramille
• rameux
• Latin rāmus

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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, 40a
7. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette