roux

Forms

roux (feminine rousse, masculine plural roux, feminine plural rousses)^[1] Old French ros, rus, rous;^[2][3] roux from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French ros, inherited from Latin russus (“red, russet”).^[4][5][2][6] The Latin word is related to ruber (“red”), the source of rouge.^[2] Littré took it for an old participle of rubeō, like iussus from iubeō.^[7]

Cognate with Romanian rus, Italian rosso, Occitan ros, Catalan ros and Portuguese ruço;^[8][6][7] Spanish rojo is from russeus.^[8][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as ros at the end of the 11th century in Rashi's glosses, describing a man's red face, and about 1135 in the Couronnement de Louis for a person with red hair.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Used first of a red face, the word gave ground to rouge and its derivatives.^[2] It described red-gold hair and, from about 1160, a red-haired person; in the Middle Ages, following a tradition going back to antiquity, red hair was taken for a sign of a bad nature, a superstition still felt in the 19th century.^[2] A 13th-century proverb puts it: Entre rous poil et felonie S'entreportent grant compagnie.^[7]

From about 1175 it was used of anything of an orange-red colour, especially animals: bêtes rousses (1549) were deer such as stags, fallow deer and roe deer.^[2][4][9] Lune rousse is the April moon which, in peasant lore, browns and freezes young growth (1628).^[2] As a noun it named a chestnut horse (about 1200) and the colour itself (1636); in cooking beurre roux is recorded in 1679 and un roux, a mixture of flour cooked in butter, in 1762.^[4][2]

Timeline

• late 11th century – Ros in Rashi's glosses, of a red face.^[4]
• c. 1135 – Ros describes red hair in the Couronnement de Louis.^[4]
• c. 1175 – Used of anything golden-red.^[2][9]
• c. 1200 – As a noun, a chestnut horse (Jean Bodel).^[4]
• 16th century – The spelling roux appears.^[2][3]
• 1549 – Bêtes rousses “deer” in Robert Estienne.^[4]
• 1628 – Lune rousse is recorded.^[2]
• 1679 – Beurre roux in Richelet.^[4]
• 1762 – Roux names a sauce base, in Rousseau's Émile.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an orange-red or russet colour.^[10][9]
2. Of hair: red, ginger; of a person: red-haired.^[10][1]
3. Lune rousse: the April moon, blamed for frosts that brown young plants.^[2][4]

Noun

1. A red-haired person, a redhead.^[10][1]
2. The colour red-brown, russet.^[11][10]
3. (cooking) A roux, flour cooked in butter to thicken sauces.^[11][1]

Word family

• rouquin
• roussâtre
• rousseau
• rousselet
• roussette
• rousseur
• roussir

Related words

• rouge
• Latin russus

Usage notes

The noun rousse also names a reddish roach-like fish in eastern France (1756, Encyclopédie).^[2] Rousseau, once a synonym of roux, survives mainly as a surname, like Roussel.^[2]

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 m n o p Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c 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 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 588a
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)