rogner

Forms

rogner^[1] Old French redognier (late 11th century), reoignier and rooignier (12th century), then rongner (13th century); rogner is found from 1570.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman also had roignier, ruigner and rooigner.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rooignier, inherited from Vulgar Latin *retundiō, an alteration of *rotundiō (“to cut round”), from Latin rotundus (“round”).^{[2][6][1][7][8]} Old French had three syllables in this verb, after its adjective reon, roon “round”.^[9]

Cognate with Old Occitan redonhar and Walloon rognî.^[7][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Rashi's glosses have redognier at the end of the 11th century.^[4][2] About 1135 the Couronnement de Louis uses reoignier for “to tonsure”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant “to tonsure” and “to cut all round” (about 1160), and in the Middle Ages often “to shear” or “to cut off the head”.^[2][7][3] It soon lost the idea of roundness and kept only that of cutting so as to reduce a size, already in Chrétien de Troyes about 1175.^[2][6]

From this came special uses: fraudulently filing down the edges of a coin (about 1283, Beaumanoir), trimming branches and roots (1567) and trimming the margins of a book in binding (1690).^[4][2] With a part of the body as object it was used of the nails (about 1260) and, later, of a horse's hoof (1870).^[2][6] The figurative rogner les griffes à quelqu'un is in Voltaire (1768), and tailler et rogner in Mathurin Régnier (1608).^[6][2] The medieval phrase bien près rongnier les ongles (1358) already meant to cut down someone's power or profit.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1135 – Reoignier “to tonsure” in the Couronnement de Louis.^[4][6]
• c. 1160 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses rooignier for “to cut”.^[6]
• c. 1165 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it figuratively, for shortening a name.^[4]
• c. 1260 – Philippe de Novare writes of trimming one's nails.^[4]
• c. 1283 – Beaumanoir uses it for clipping coins.^[4][6]
• 1358 – Bien près rongnier les ongles à aucun, to curb someone.^[4]
• 1567 – Charles Estienne uses it for trimming branches and roots.^[4]
• 1570 – The spelling rogner is recorded.^[3][2]
• 1608 – Tailler et rogner appears in Mathurin Régnier.^[6]
• 1690 – Furetière records the sense of trimming a book.^[6][2]
• 1768 – Voltaire uses rogner les griffes à quelqu'un figuratively.^[6][2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To trim something at the edges so as to straighten its outline: to trim the pages of a book, to clip a coin, to cut a bird's wings, a cat's claws, one's nails: il rogna les marges de la photo.^[10][11][1]
2. (figurative) To cut down, discreetly or a little at a time: rogner les salaires, rogner les pouvoirs d'une assemblée.^[10]
3. Rogner sur: to skimp on, economize on: elle rogne sur ses loisirs.^[10]
4. (agriculture) To cut back branches or roots.^[9][4]

Word family

• rogneur
• rognure
• rognage
• rognement

Related words

• rond
• rotonde
• Latin rotundus

Usage notes

The Grand Robert lists a second, familiar rogner “to be in a temper, to fume” (1876, Old French ruignier in the 13th century), from an onomatopoeic family widespread in Gallo-Romance that also gave rogne² “bad temper” and rognonner.^[3][10]

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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 517b
9. ^ a b c Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)