ruche

Forms

ruche f (plural ruches)^[1] Old French rosche, rusche (early 13th century), rousche and rouche (13th century), ruque (14th century); ruche became the usual spelling in the 1530s.^[2][3][4] Anglo-Norman had raosche, rouche, ruche and rusce.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French rusche, inherited from Medieval Latin rusca (“bark”), a word found in 9th-century glosses, which is from Gaulish rūsca (“bark”).^{[6][2][3][7][8]} The Gaulish word is supported by Old Irish rúsc (“bark”), and Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Celtic *rūskos (“bark”).^[6][7][1] Old Occitan rusca (“bark”) and Catalan rusc (“cork-oak bark; beehive”) have the same Celtic origin.^[6][2]

The sense “beehive” comes from the bark, especially cork-oak bark, of which the first hives were made.^[6][7][2] The Franks brought the plaited straw hive to northern Gaul, but the old name stayed, because the Latin word had been replaced by Latin scortea (whence écorce) in the sense “bark” and its link with the material was no longer felt.^[7][2] Littré also mentions Old High German glosses in which the word means “basket”.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as rosche in the romance Yder (1210–1225), meaning the bees' dwelling and the bees in it: mangier le miel de la rosche “to eat the honey of the hive”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

By metonymy the word named each cell of the honeycomb (14th century, gone after the classical period) and the colony of bees in a hive (1538).^[2] By likeness to the shape of the hive basket it named a large sea-fishing trap in 1614.^[2][4]

Comparisons between people and bees (1756) prepared the figurative sense, a crowded place full of busy activity (1819).^[2][6] From its likeness to the honeycomb, ruche became in 1818 a pleated strip of lace or tulle trimming a woman's dress,^[2][6] which English took as ruche in 1827.^[10] In 1877 it named the stacked tiles on which oyster spat settles.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1210–1225 – Rosche in Yder.^[6]
• 1205–1250 – The spelling ruche in the Roman de Renart.^[6]
• 14th century – A cell of the honeycomb.^[2]
• 1538 – The colony of bees in a hive.^[2][4]
• 1600 – Olivier de Serres uses rucher “apiary” and ruschee “contents of a hive”.^[2][6]
• 1614 – A large fishing trap.^[2][4]
• 1798 – The Académie records Il ne faut point fâcher une ruche.^[6]
• 1818 – A pleated trimming, in L'Observateur des modes.^[6][4]
• 1819 – A place of busy activity.^[2]
• 1827 – English borrows ruche “frill”.^[10]
• 1877 – Tiles for collecting oyster spat.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A beehive, a shelter made for a swarm of bees: une ruche en paille.^[11][6][1]
2. The colony of bees living in a hive.^[11][6]
3. (figurative) A place of busy, organized activity.^[11][2]
4. (sewing) A pleated or gathered strip of lace or tulle used as trimming, a ruche.^[11][6][1]
5. (oyster farming) Stacked tiles on which oyster spat settles.^[2][4]

Word family

• rucher
• ruchée

Related words

• English ruche

Usage notes

The old proverb il ne faut point fâcher une ruche, recorded by the Académie in 1798, meant that one should not stir up a host of small enemies.^[6][9]

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 q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b 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 Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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
7. ^ a b c d Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 10, 582a
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert