rance

Forms

rance (plural rances)^[1] The 16th century also had the Latinism rancide.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin rancidus (“stinking, putrid, offensive”),^{[3][4][5][1][6]} derived from the very rare verb ranceō (“to be rotten”), known from a present participle in Lucretius and in glosses.^[4][7] Rey notes its vowel ⟨a⟩ and a suffix typical of words for physical defects, but calls its origin unknown.^[4] Littré compares the loss of the Latin ending to pâle from pallidus and net¹ from nitidus.^[2] Wiktionary gives rancio as its doublet.^[1]

Old Occitan had ransa “withered”, said of skin and flesh from the 12th to the 13th century.^[3][4] Compare Spanish rancio and Italian rancido.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi first finds the adjective in the first half of the 14th century, in the Jeux-partis, of an old sow with a strong smell and a sharp taste, and the noun in 1377 in Gace de la Buigne for the taste and smell of rancid fat.^[3] Rey and the GLLF instead give the adjective's first sense as “morally lost, fallen”, which has gone out of use.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The noun, rare before 1580, names the state of old fat.^[4] The adjective came to be applied almost always to fats, especially butter, that have taken on a sharp, strong taste (1546),^[4] and by extension to old food such as jam (1694).^[4][2] Figuratively it meant “stale, outdated” from Amyot (1559),^[3][7] and Olivier de Serres used it of well-rotted manure (1600).^[3][2] The metaphor “old and unpleasant” stayed rare, while the phrase sentir le rance, with rance as a noun, keeps that value alive.^[4]

Timeline

• 1300s – The adjective appears in the Jeux-partis.^[3]
• 1377 – Gace de la Buigne uses the noun for the taste and smell of rancid fat.^[3]
• 1538 – The verb se rancir is recorded.^[4][5]
• 1552 – R. Estienne records the adjective of fats.^[7][8]
• 1559 – Amyot uses it for “old, outdated”.^[3][7]
• 1600 – Olivier de Serres applies it to manure.^[3]
• 1694 – It is said of old jam.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of fat, oil or butter: rancid, having a strong smell and a sharp taste from age and exposure to air.^[3][9][2]
2. Of a smell or taste: like that of rancid fat.^[9][7]
3. (figurative) stale, old and unpleasant.^[3][4]

Noun

1. The smell or taste of rancid fat, especially in sentir le rance.^[9][2][4]

Word family

• rancir

Related words

• rancio
• Latin rancidus

Usage notes

The Grand Robert and the TLFi have a separate nautical noun rance (feminine), a timber fixed across the planking of an old ship to strengthen it, first recorded in 1557 as a Norman word for a prop holding up the side rail of a cart.^[3][8] The Grand Robert takes it as the Norman form of ranche.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b 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, 53b
7. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert