roupie

roupie¹ snot

Pronunciation

• /ʁu.pi/^[1]

Forms

roupie f (plural roupies)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the drop at the end of the nose is of unknown origin: the TLFi, following the FEW, Bloch and Wartburg, Rey, Picoche and the Petit Robert all leave it unexplained.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} G. Alessio proposed an unattested Latin *ruppita, which would have been taken from Ancient Greek ῥύπος (rhúpos, “dirt, filth, sticky substance, pitch”).^[2][5][1] P. Guiraud saw in it a dialect variant of reupie (“spittle”), since spittle and nasal mucus are often named alike.^[5][8] The Grand Robert gives Guiraud's explanation as its etymology, while the TLFi does not mention it and Rey only reports it beside Alessio's.^[8][2][5]

A Medieval Latin ropida is glossed by the French word in the middle of the 14th century.^[2][9] In Anjou the word also meant the robin in the 16th century;^[4][5][10] Bloch and Wartburg and Rey note that, the etymology being so obscure, this cannot show which sense is the original one, and Rey adds that it may be a different word.^[4][5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLFi's first record is from the 13th-century tale Marguet convertie.^[2] Littré quotes a 13th-century couplet of Walter of Bibbesworth playing on rubies and rupies: Se bourse eüst taunt de rubies / Cume li nez ad de rupies, / Riche sereit “if a purse had as many rubies as the nose has drips, it would be rich”.^[9] The Anglo-Norman Dictionary glosses it as watery mucus running from the nose.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The derivative roupieux “with a dripping nose” appears about 1295 in Jean de Meun's Testament, describing an old man.^[2][4] Rabelais has Frère Jean told to wipe away ceste roupye qui vous pend on nez.^[9]

The noun is now old-fashioned in its proper sense and survives mainly in familiar phrases for something worthless: de la roupie de singe (1864 in Delvau, 1865 in Larchey), later replaced by de la roupie de sansonnet (1877, Zola).^[5][12][2] They are mostly used in the negative, ce n'est pas de la roupie de sansonnet, of something that does matter.^[5][2][12] Old slang also used it as an adjective, c'est roupie, “it is ugly, worthless”.^[5] Rey compares these scornful uses with those of words for excrement such as crotte and pipi de chat.^[5]

Timeline

• 13th century – First recorded in Marguet convertie.^[2]
• c. 1295 – Jean de Meun uses the derivative roupieux.^[2]
• 14th century – The Medieval Latin gloss ropida is rendered by roupie.^[2]
• 16th century – In Anjou the word is recorded for the robin.^[4][5]
• 1864 – Ce n'est pas de la roupie de singe is recorded by Delvau.^[5][12]
• 1877 – Zola uses de la roupie de sansonnet.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) A drop of nasal mucus hanging from the nose, snot: avoir la roupie au nez: Le vieux berger avait toujours la roupie au nez en hiver.^[7][2][9]
2. (familiar) De la roupie de sansonnet (dated de la roupie de singe): a thing of no value, or, in the negative, something that really counts: Ce vin, ce n'est pas de la roupie de sansonnet !^[7][12][2]

Word family

• roupieux

roupie² rupee

Pronunciation

• /ʁu.pi/^[1]

Forms

roupie f (plural roupies)^[1] Early forms roupia and roupie (1616).^[4]

Etymology

The word for the Indian coin is borrowed from Portuguese rupia,^{[4][8][12][1][6]} from the Hindustani name of the coin, which goes back to Sanskrit रूप्य (rūpya, “silver”).^{[4][8][12][6][1]} Littré instead took it from Persian, without the Portuguese step.^[9] The English word rupee (1610s) has the same Indian source.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in 1616, as roupia and roupie, for a coin of India.^[4][8] The Petit Robert dates it to 1614.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rupee, the monetary unit of India and Pakistan.^[7][12]
2. The currency of several other countries, among them Sri Lanka, Nepal, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Indonesia and the Maldives.^[14]