roche

Forms

roche f (plural roches)^[1] Old French also roce (about 1245) and the northern roke (1269).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rocca, a word of unknown origin, probably pre-Latin.^[2][4][5] It is recorded in Medieval Latin as rocca from the 8th century;^[6] Littré cites it from a text of 767, where it seems to mean a refuge among rocks.^[3] Littré rejects a derivation from the old French name of the rook in chess, as the word is too old for it, and doubts the forms *rupea and *rupica from Latin rūpēs (“rock, cliff”) that Diez proposed.^[3] Beside it French later formed the masculine roc (1512).^[4]

Cognate with Italian rocca, Catalan roca and Spanish roca; Italian roccia was borrowed from French.^[2][6] Breton roc'h and English rock are from the same word.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found at the end of the 10th century in the Passion, meaning a large mass of very hard stone, standing alone or forming part of the ground.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the 12th century la roche also meant rocky ground, a stone used in building (about 1178, a sense since lost) and a reef just below the water (13th century).^[6][8] Several senses taken by metonymy, a cave (about 1210), a castle built on a rock (about 1245) and a stone quarry (1269), did not outlive Middle French.^[6][2]

As a figure of firmness, roche meant a refuge in Bible language (1553), and cœur de roche a hard, unfeeling heart (before 1573).^[2] Eau de roche, clear spring water, and the figurative clair comme de l'eau de roche “plain, obvious” are both in Furetière (1690).^[2][6] The ore holding precious stones gave de (la) vieille roche “old and well tried” (1658), said of nobility of long descent (1718).^[6][8]

With Buffon (1749) the word became a scientific term for the mineral matter of the Earth's crust, the source of many terms of geology.^[6][2] In Canadian French une roche is an ordinary stone or pebble.^[6][9]

Timeline

• c. 980 – First record, in the Passion.^[2][6]
• c. 1120 – Used of rocky ground.^[6][8]
• c. 1245 – Roce names a castle built on a rock.^[2]
• 1269 – Roke “stone quarry” in a document from Tournai.^[2]
• 1512 – The masculine roc appears beside it.^[4]
• 1658 – De la vieille roche “old and well tried”.^[6]
• 1677 – Cristal de roche “rock crystal”.^[2]
• 1690 – Furetière records eau de roche and clair comme de l'eau de roche.^[2]
• 1749 – Buffon uses it for minerals considered in the mass.^[2][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large block or mass of hard stone; a rock.^[9][2]
2. La roche: the hard mineral matter at the Earth's surface; bedrock.^[9]
3. (geology) A body of minerals considered in the mass.^[3][6]
4. (Canada) A stone or pebble.^[9][6]
5. Eau de roche: very clear spring water;^[9][3] clair comme de l'eau de roche: perfectly plain and obvious.^[9][3]
6. Il y a anguille sous roche: there is something hidden going on.^[9][3]
7. Cristal de roche: rock crystal.^[2]

Word family

• rocher
• rocheux
• rocaille

Related words

• roc
• rococo

Usage notes

Littré treated roche in alun de roche and in the name of a kind of borax as a separate word, from Rakka, a town he identifies with Edessa, where the alum came from;^[3] the TLFi lists the borax sense under this word.^[2] Sailors said roche rather than roc or rocher.^[3]

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 p q 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 Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 435a
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert