ronger

Forms

ronger^[1] Old French ronyer in the Jewish glosses (about 1100), rungier (about 1130), rongier (about 1193), then ronger (early 14th century).^[2] Anglo-Norman also had roncher and rogner.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rongier, rungier, inherited from Late Latin rūmigō (“to ruminate”).^{[2][4][5][1][6]} The Old French verb meant both “to gnaw” and “to chew the cud”.^[4][7] The present form is due to a crossing with Latin rōdō (“to gnaw”) or its popular derivatives *rōdicō and *rōsicō, helped by the likeness of chewing the cud and gnawing.^{[4][2][7][8][9]} The DHLF connects the Latin verb with rūmis or rūma (“udder”) and agō (“to drive”), though by its sense it rather goes with rūmen (“first stomach of a ruminant”).^[2][5] Littré took it from an altered form of rūminō.^[10]

That verb itself survives in Italian rodere, Spanish roer, Old Occitan roire and Old French rore.^[4][2] This crossed form is found only in Gallo-Romance.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chrétien de Troyes (1176–1181) has lions rungier les os “gnaw the bones” in the Chevalier de la charrette.^[11] About 1197 Hélinant applied it figuratively to greedy Rome, which gnaws the bones and strips the skin.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The original sense “to ruminate” was still recorded in the 17th century and survives in hunting, of a stag, and in the dialects; its figurative sense “to ponder” (12th century) died out with it.^[2][4] “To wear away by gnawing” (about 1175) spread instead, first of animals, then of people picking the last scraps from a bone (about 1180), and of insects and worms eating a substance (about 1190).^[2][11]

Ronger son frein “to champ at the bit”, figuratively “to be impatient”, is found in the 13th century, long before the literal sense of the horse.^[2][5] From Old French the verb also meant to eat away little by little, figuratively “to undermine” (about 1190), and literally of what wears down or corrodes a surface or living tissue (about 1460).^[2][5] The reflexive se ronger “to torment oneself” (1610) is only figurative, as in the familiar se ronger les sangs (1876).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Ronyer in the Jewish glosses.^[2]
• 1176–1181 – Rungier les os in Chrétien's Chevalier de la charrette.^[11]
• c. 1190 – Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence uses it of worms eating flesh.^[11][5]
• c. 1193 – The form rongier (Hélinant).^[5][2]
• early 14th century – The form ronger.^[2][5]
• 1530 – Palsgrave records ronger son frein.^[5]
• 1609 – Mathurin Régnier has ronger sa litière.^[11]
• 1610 – Reflexive se ronger “to fret”.^[2]
• 1876 – Se ronger les sangs.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gnaw, to wear away with the teeth bit by bit: la souris ronge le fromage.^[8][10]
2. Of worms and insects, to eat into, destroy: une poutre rongée par les vers.^[8]
3. To erode, corrode, to wear away gradually: la rouille ronge le fer.^[8][1]
4. (figurative) To torment, consume: le chagrin le ronge.^[8][11]
5. Ronger son frein: to champ at the bit, to contain one's impatience.^[8][5]
6. Se ronger (reflexive): to fret, se ronger les sangs.^[8][2]

Word family

• rongeur

Related words

• ruminer
• Latin rūmigō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
4. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 561a
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
11. ^ a b c d e f g 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