scier

Forms

scier^[1] Old French seier, soier, soiier, seer and sier; the spelling scier is recorded in 1538.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French seier, inherited from Latin secō (“to cut, cut up”),^[2][4][5] which in farming also meant “to mow”.^[5][3] This form and soier are the regular outcomes and still live in the dialects;^[2][5] sier grew up in Old and Middle French after the stressed forms and the noun scie.^[2][5] The ⟨c⟩ was first written in scieur in the 13th century, to tell it from sieur, and spread to the verb in the 16th century, partly to recall the Latin verb.^[5][3] Rey sees in the Latin verb an extended form of the root Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).^[3][6]

For “to saw” Latin used a phrase with Latin serra (“saw”).^[5] From the 4th century it also had serrō, which survives in south-eastern and south-western Gallo-Romance and in Spanish serrar.^[5] Cognate with Italian segare and with Spanish segar, Catalan segar and Portuguese segar “to reap”.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Oxford Psalter (about 1120) has seier for cutting grain or grass with a sickle or scythe.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The common sense “to cut with a saw” follows soon after, in Gautier d'Arras (1176–1184, soiier).^[2][3] The reaping sense is still used in some regions.^[3][5]

Figurative uses date from the 18th century: from the monotonous movement of a saw, scier quelqu'un meant “to bore, tire someone” (1748), whence scier le dos à quelqu'un (1781), now dated, and the adjective sciant “boring” (1801).^[2][3] The riding phrases scier du bridon and scier du filet (1842) mean moving the bit sideways.^[2][3] In 1888 slang it meant “to dismiss” or “to ruin” someone, and since the mid-20th century, chiefly in compound tenses and the passive, “to astound” (1944, Céline: t'es scié).^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Seier “to reap” appears in the Oxford Psalter.^[2]
• 1176–1184 – Gautier d'Arras uses soiier for cutting with a saw.^[2]
• c. 1200 – The form sier is found.^[2]
• 1247 – Scieur is written with ⟨c⟩.^[5][3]
• 1340 – Sciage is recorded, written seage.^[5]
• 1538 – Robert Estienne writes scier.^[2]
• 1748 – Collé uses scier quelqu'un for “to bore someone”.^[2]
• 1842 – The riding phrase scier du bridon is recorded.^[2]
• 1888 – Slang scier “to dismiss” is recorded.^[2][3]
• 1944 – Céline uses it for “to astound”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To saw, cut with a saw or another cutting blade: scier une bûche.^[6][7]
2. (regional) To reap, cut grain with a sickle.^[3][5]
3. (horse riding, intransitive) Scier du filet, scier du bridon: to work the bit sideways in the horse's mouth.^[6][2]
4. (familiar, dated) To bore or tire someone with monotonous repetition.^[6][3]
5. (familiar) To astound, stun: j'étais scié.^[6][3]

Word family

• scie
• sciage
• scierie
• scieur
• sciure

Related words

• Latin secō

Usage notes

Sailors' scier “to row backwards, to make a boat go back or turn” is first found as scier en arrière in Amyot (1559).^[8][9][7] The Grand Robert derives it from Provençal sia, seia, of obscure origin, or calls it a metaphorical use of scier “to saw”, and the GLLF thinks it probably metaphorical;^[8][9] Bloch and Wartburg compare Italian sciare and the same Provençal forms, of obscure origin,^[5] and Wiktionary also cites Spanish ciar.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 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. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 363b
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse