rognon

Forms

rognon m (plural rognons)^[1] Old French roignon (late 12th century) and reignon (1174–78); rongnon about 1460 and rognon before 1613.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French roignon, inherited from Vulgar Latin *rēniōnem, the accusative of a derivative of rēn (“kidney”).^[2][5][6][3] The ⟨o⟩ of the first syllable comes from vowel assimilation to the ending, through a form *rōniōnem.^[2][5][3] Forms with ⟨re-⟩ and ⟨ro-⟩ lived side by side in Gallo-Romance, Italian and Catalan, and the written language finally settled on the form with ⟨ro-⟩.^[2]

Cognate with Italian rognone, Old Occitan renhon, Catalan ronyó, Spanish riñón and the Guernsey Norman rignon.^[2][7] Spanish and Portuguese have only the forms with ⟨re-⟩.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Étienne de Fougères has the form reignon in 1174–78.^[2] In Raoul de Cambrai (late 12th century) roignon is the kidney of a man: the poet speaks of driving the iron through Gautier's roignons.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Until the classical period rognon was the ordinary word for the human kidney; it also meant the hip by metonymy (late 12th century).^[3] The animal's kidney is recorded in the Roman de Renart (1205–50).^[2] When physicians borrowed Latin rēn as rein, rognon was narrowed to the kidneys of animals and became a butcher's and cook's word.^[2][5]

By analogy it named the testicles of some animals, as in rognon de coq (1690), and certain elongated plums, beans and grapes (1701).^[3][2] In late 19th-century slang it was one of the popular words for a man's testicle.^[3] Likeness of shape gave the geological sense “rounded mass of one mineral inside another rock” (1779, Saussure), a fishing spoon (1904) and, in the decorative arts, a small kidney-shaped Louis XV table.^[3][2] The human sense survives in popular speech for the lower back and in Quebec French.^[9][2]

Timeline

• 1174–78 – Étienne de Fougères writes reignon.^[2]
• late 12th century – Roignon “human kidney” in Raoul de Cambrai.^[2]
• 1205–50 – The Roman de Renart uses it for an animal's kidney.^[2]
• c. 1460 – Villon writes rongnons.^[4][8]
• 1690 – Furetière records it for the testicles of the ram and the cock.^[2]
• 1779 – H. B. de Saussure uses it in geology.^[2]
• 1904 – First recorded as a fishing spoon.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (cooking) The kidney of an animal used as food: un rognon d'agneau, des rognons de porc à la moutarde.^[9][1]
2. Rognons blancs: the testicles of a butcher's animal, cooked as food.^[9]
3. (dated or Quebec) A human kidney;^[9][2] (popular) the small of the back, the loins.^[9][2]
4. (geology) A rounded mass of mineral embedded in a different rock, a nodule.^[9][4]
5. (mountaineering) A rock outcrop that rises above the surface of a glacier or snowfield.^[9]
6. (furniture) A kidney-shaped table: table rognon.^[4][3]

Word family

• rognonnade

Related words

• rein
• Latin rēn

Usage notes

La main sur le rognon “hand on hip” is a popular phrase for a defiant stance;^[2][8] Littré gives mettre les poings sur les rognons, the attitude of people quarrelling.^[2][8]

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 r s t u v 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b c 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, 255b
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
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