ration

Forms

ration f (plural rations)^[1] Middle French racion (1376).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ratiō (“reckoning, sum”), the learned doublet of raison, which was inherited.^[2][4][1] From “calculation, account” the Latin word had come to mean, in Late and Medieval Latin, property, a share (about 792) and a provision of food (about 850).^[4] Bloch and Wartburg take it from the Medieval Latin ratio;^[5] the TLFi takes the first sense from Classical Latin and the ecclesiastical sense from Medieval Latin, which also had “the share of provisions given to soldiers” by about 1300, a use paralleled in Catalan racio (“portion of food”) (1315).^[2] Meyer-Lübke saw the French word as a borrowing from literary Italian razione.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Jean Priorat's Chevalerie (1290) it meant the part of a soldier's pay set aside in common.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

In 1376, written racion, it meant an ecclesiastical prebend.^[2][4] The modern use dates from the 17th century: the daily quantity of bread, meat and wine given to sailors (1643) and then the portion of food given to each soldier (1671).^[4][2] It widened to the share of food for a person or an animal (1810), in stock-farming to an animal's daily quantity of feed (1869).^[4][2]

Figuratively, often ironically, it is all that someone receives in troubles or trials (1822).^[4][2] In African French it is the money needed for a day's food, and in Mauritius riz de ration is rice sold at a state-subsidized price.^[4] The English sense “fixed allowance of food” (1702) came from French.^[7]

Timeline

• 1290 – Jean Priorat uses it for part of a soldier's pay.^[2]
• 1376 – Racion means an ecclesiastical prebend.^[2]
• 1404 – Anglo-Norman ration “allowance” is recorded.^[8]
• 1643 – Fournier uses it for the sailors' daily food.^[2][4]
• 1671 – Used for the soldiers' portion of food.^[4]
• 1702 – English ration “allowance of food” is taken from French.^[7]
• 1777 – The derivative rationnaire is recorded.^[2][5]
• 1795 – The verb rationner is formed.^[4][5]
• 1810 – Used for the food of a person or an animal.^[2][4]
• 1822 – Stendhal uses it figuratively.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The daily ration of food given to each soldier: ration de combat.^[9][2]
2. The quantity of food due to a person or an animal for a day.^[9][10]
3. Ration alimentaire: the amount and kind of food a body needs.^[9]
4. (figurative) One's share of something, often of troubles: avoir sa ration de “to have one's fill of”.^[4]
5. (Africa) The money needed for a family's daily food.^[4]

Word family

• rationner
• rationnaire
• rationnement

Related words

• raison
• rationnel
• Latin ratiō
• English ration

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 o 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. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)