rouille

Forms

rouille f (plural rouilles)^[1] Old French masculine ruil, roïl and feminine roïlle, reoïlle;^[2][3][4] rouille is found from about 1380.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French reoïlle, inherited from Vulgar Latin *robicula,^[4][1] a diminutive of Latin rōbīgō (“rust, blight of grain”),^[4][5][6] formed by a change of suffix.^[5][2] The TLFi suggests the diminutive first meant a small spot of rust.^[4] Old French also had a masculine roïl, from a masculine *robiculus, which the feminine displaced.^[4][2][5] The Latin word is derived from rōbus (“red, ruddy”), a dialect form related to ruber (“red”).^[2][1]

Cognate with Occitan rovilh and Catalan rovell;^[1][7] Spanish robín and Italian ruggine continue the accusative of the Latin word itself.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Oxford Psalter, in the first half of the 12th century, has the masculine ruïl for the rust of grain.^[4] The feminine is first found about 1170 in Chrétien de Troyes's Erec, of rust on a hauberk.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word names the product of the corrosion of iron in damp air; by extension Estienne speaks of the rust of copper or brass (1538), and rouille verte “verdigris” and rouille de plomb “white lead” were used later, but are now obsolete.^[4][2] From the late 12th century it was also used figuratively, of the rust of sin, then, from the 1270s, of whatever blunts a faculty or makes it useless.^[4][2]

After another sense of the Latin word it names the plant disease that leaves rust-coloured spots on cereals (1591).^[4][2] Jean de Meun used it for reddish spots on the face (1269–1278), and later it named a fault in the silvering of a mirror (1803) and a dyer's iron mordant (1870).^[4][2] In 20th-century Provençal cooking it is a garlic sauce reddened with chilli, served with fish soup and bouillabaisse; the TLFi first finds it in Reboul's Cuisinière provençale (1926).^[2][4] As an invariable adjective of colour it means rust-brown.^[8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – The Oxford Psalter has masculine ruïl.^[4][2]
• c. 1170 – Chrétien de Troyes has feminine reoïlle.^[4]
• 1269–1278 – Jean de Meun uses it for red spots on the face.^[4]
• 1372 – Foulechat's translation uses it for what spoils a thing's worth.^[4]
• c. 1380 – The form rouille appears.^[2][3]
• 1538 – Estienne records the rust of copper.^[4][2]
• 1591 – It names a disease of trees.^[4]
• 1803 – Boiste records it for a damaged mirror.^[4][2]
• 1926 – Reboul's cookery book names the Provençal sauce.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. rust, the reddish-brown product of the corrosion of iron in damp air.^[10][8][11]
2. (literary) Something that dulls or stiffens: la rouille de l'âge.^[8]
3. (botany) Rust, any of several fungal diseases of plants, such as the rust of wheat.^[10][8][1]
4. A fault in the silvering of a mirror.^[8][4]
5. (cooking) A garlic sauce seasoned with red chilli, served with fish soup.^[10][2][1]

Adjective

1. Rust-coloured, reddish brown; invariable: des vestes rouille.^[8][10][1]

Word family

• rouiller
• rouillure
• dérouiller
• rouilleux

Related words

• rouge
• Latin rōbīgō

Usage notes

The Grand Robert has a second noun rouille, a slang word for a bottle of wine and especially of champagne, dated 1836 and shortened from rouillade (1800), an altered form of rouillarde.^[3] Rey dates the bottle to Vidocq in 1835 and the older rouillarde to 1596, and names it after the colour of a poor red wine.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ 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 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
5. ^ a b c d 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, 427b
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
10. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
11. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert