sanglier

Forms

sanglier m (plural sangliers)^[1] Old French sengler and sangler, then senglier and sanglier (about 1300).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sengler, inherited from Vulgar Latin *singlāris,^[1] from Latin singulāris (“single, solitary”) in the phrase singulāris porcus, literally “solitary pig”, first used of the male that lives alone.^[2][4][3][5] The ending ⟨-ier⟩ replaced the earlier ⟨-er⟩ by a change of suffix.^[2][4][3] The adjectival phrase also lived on in French as porc senglier (1380) and porc sanglier (about 1501, still found at the end of the 18th century), and in Old Occitan as porc cenglar.^[3][4]

Cognate with Occitan singlar, Catalan senglar and Italian cinghiale, and with dialect forms such as Walloon singlé.^[1][6] It is a doublet of singulier.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as sengler about 1140 in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne, meaning the wild boar;^[2] Rey dates sengler to about 1120, and the GLLF to the end of the 11th century, in the Chanson de Guillaume.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its first sense, the wild animal close to the pig and hunted as game, and the rich hunting vocabulary around it shows its importance: laie replaced the regular feminine sanglière, recorded by Nicot in 1606 and called unused by Trévoux in 1771.^[3][2]

By likeness to a pig's snout it named a Mediterranean fish (1555, Belon's sanglier de rivière), and sanglier d'Amérique is recorded by Littré for the peccary.^[2][3] In African French it is extended to other wild pigs, such as the phacochère.^[3] Vidocq's slang used it in 1828 for the priest who heard a condemned man's confession,^[3][2] and Hugo used it as an adjective in une barbe sanglière (1862).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – Sengler appears in the Pèlerinage de Charlemagne, and senglier in Geffrei Gaimar.^[2]
• c. 1300 – The form sanglier is recorded, in un porc sanglier.^[2][3]
• 1555 – Belon uses sanglier de rivière for a fish.^[2]
• 1606 – Nicot records the feminine sanglière.^[2][3]
• 1828 – Vidocq records it as a slang name for a priest.^[2][3]
• 1862 – Hugo uses it as an adjective.^[2]
• 1870 – Littré records sanglier d'Amérique “peccary”.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wild boar, a wild pig with a heavy body, coarse bristles and curved tusks.^[8][2]
2. The meat of this animal.^[8][6]
3. Sanglier d'Amérique: the peccary.^[2][8]
4. (figurative, familiar) A rough, brutal man.^[6]
5. A Mediterranean fish whose snout looks like a pig's.^[6][3]

Related words

• singulier
• porc
• Latin singulāris

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 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 644a
6. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert