sauce

Forms

sauce f (plural sauces)^[1] Old French sause, sausse and salse; the spelling sausse lasted until about 1740, and sauce is found from about 1240.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French sause, inherited from Vulgar Latin *salsa (“salted thing”), the noun use of the feminine (or the neuter plural) of Latin salsus (“salted”).^[3][5][6][2] That is the past participle of sallō (“to salt”), from sāl (“salt”).^[3][2][1] Old French also had the adjective salse “salt” (of water, of the sea), recorded about 1100, which also gave a noun meaning “sea water”.^[3][2][7]

Cognate with Italian salsa, Old Occitan sausa, Catalan salsa, Spanish salsa and Portuguese salsa.^[8][9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Its first record, about 1165 in Guillaume d'Angleterre, already uses the cooking sense as a metaphor, and the plain culinary sense is recorded in 1266.^[3] Rey dates the sense of a seasoning made with salt and other ingredients to 1172–1174 (salse).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used in a figurative sense for “sea water”, which went out of use as the cooking sense took hold.^[2][3] From the 12th century it was used for a way of dealing with someone or something (1176–1184), and many phrases grew from this: mêler la sauce “to plot” (1172–1174), faire la sauce à quelqu'un “to scold someone” (1440–1475) and il n'est sauce que d'appétit “hunger is the best sauce” (1577) have all fallen out of use.^[3][2]

From the 17th century sauce also meant what is merely added or accessory: Oudin records la saulse vaut mieux que le poisson (1640), and mettre quelqu'un à toutes les sauces “to use someone for every purpose” goes back to 1610.^[3][2] Allonger la sauce “to pad out” is 20th-century.^[2] Slang used it for heavy rain from 1881 (il va tomber de la sauce).^[3] In southern France the word names various stews, a calque of Occitan, and in sub-Saharan Africa a stew served with a starchy food.^[2][10] English took sauce from Old French in the mid-14th century.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – The adjective salse “salt” appears in the Chanson de Roland.^[3][2]
• c. 1165 – Sause appears in Guillaume d'Angleterre.^[3]
• 1176–1184 – Gautier d'Arras uses sausse for “manner”.^[3]
• 1266 – The plain culinary sense is recorded.^[3]
• Mid-14th century – English borrows it as sauce.^[11]
• 1577 – Il n'est sauce que d'appétit is recorded.^[2]
• 1640 – Oudin records la saulse vaut mieux que le poisson.^[3]
• 1680 – Mme de Sévigné uses it for an accessory.^[3]
• 1881 – Slang uses it for a downpour.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sauce, a liquid or creamy preparation served with food: sauce blanche, sauce tomate: Le poisson est servi en sauce.^[12][13][10]
2. (Africa) A stew of meat, fish or vegetables served with a starchy food.^[10][2]
3. (familiar) Padding, needless elaboration: allonger la sauce.^[10][12]
4. Mettre à toutes les sauces (familiar): to use in every possible way.^[10][2]
5. (familiar) A downpour.^[12][3]
6. (art) A soft black crayon used for stumping.^[10][3]

Word family

• saucer
• saucière
• saucée

Related words

• sel
• Latin salsus
• English sauce

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ 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. 11, 108b
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ a b c d e f Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ a b c Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)
13. ^ Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert